In April, Wärtsilä Corporation was awarded a turnkey contract by the Brazilian company Rio Amazonas Energia SA to build an 83 MWe power plant in the city of Manaus, in northern Brazil. The plant will comprise five Wärtsilä 18V46 generating sets. The contract’s value for Wärtsilä is in the range of EUR 45 million.

This is the third major power plant contract during the past 7 months to be won by Wärtsilä in the Manaus region, making Wärtsilä a major contributor to meeting the fast growing power demand in the region. The Rio Amazonas plant will be the sixteenth power plant in Brazil delivered by Wärtsilä. Their combined generating capacity is more than 700 MWe.

Rio Amazonas Energia SA was established in Manaus to own and develop this independent power plant (IPP). The major shareholder is Crisga Ltda., a privately-owned energy holding and consulting company. The plant will have a contracted power requirement of 65 MWe and an installed capacity of 83 MWe. It will supply power on a baseload basis to the Manaus grid which is an isolated system in the Amazon region. The Power Purchase Agreement for the plant has a term of 20 years.

The complete plant, excluding the fuel storage tanks and the electrical substation, is being supplied by Wärtsilä under an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract.

An important requirement for the plant is that it is required to supply the contracted power with 100% availability. The engines will initially run on heavy fuel oil, which is the cheapest fuel currently available, and the dual-fuel operation on natural gas will be implemented as soon as the gas pipeline from Urucu is in operation.

Contributory factors in Wärtsilä winning this contract were the competitive life-cycle costs of the proposed plant, the possibility to run the plant on dual-fuel mode, and the company being a single supplier for the initial plant supply. Wärtsilä and Rio Amazonas are presently negotiating a long term operations and maintenance agreement for the plant.

For further information, please contact:
Maria Nystrand
Public Relations Manager
Wärtsilä Direct
tel: +358 10 709 1456
Direct fax: +358 10 709 1425
e-mail: maria.nystrand@wartsila.com
Internet: www.wartsila.com