The technology group Wärtsilä, in consortium with energy provider Uniper, has been contracted to deliver a 105 MW combined heat and power (CHP) gas engine plant to the city of Bremen, Germany. The order was placed by Bremen’s public utility swb Erzeugung GmbH und Co. KG in December 2019. For contractual reasons Wärtsilä announced the contract with limited information and distribution in an earlier press release in January 2020.

The plant will operate on nine Wärtsilä 31SG gas engines. Wärtsilä delivers the complete technical equipment for the nine generating sets, including the heat recovery system. When operational in mid-2022, heat from the plant will be able to supply the city of Bremen’s district heating network and feed electricity into the grid in Germany. It shall replace an existing coal-fired power plant, thereby supporting the ongoing energy transition in Germany towards flexible solutions. Specifically designed for flexible power generation, the Wärtsilä 31SG generating set is a tool allowing for the integration of high levels of energy from renewable sources. It creates a balancing link between power generation and consumption, thus providing effective system level resilience. The plant will operate in winter on flexible CHP mode with district heating and the heat storage at the power plant, and in summer on peaking load with heat storage, mostly working on the volatile power markets for day ahead and intraday.

The power plant comes with a Wärtsilä Guaranteed asset performance service agreement valid for three years with an option for seven more years. The agreement includes all maintenance services, performance guarantees, and training of swb Erzeugung’s personnel. The maintenance services provided by Wärtsilä will be supported by the company’s digital technologies, such as asset diagnostics as well remote monitoring and analysis.

“Efficient and sustainable power and heat generation is extremely important, both for our company and for the German energy sector in general. We are going to replace an outdated coal burning plant with a modern, clean, reliable and extremely efficient solution, which will provide the flexibility needed today,” said Jens-Uwe Freitag, chief Executive Officer of swb Erzeugung GmbH & Co. KG, Bremen.

Pekka Tolonen, Energy Business Director, Europe, Wärtsilä, said: “I am very satisfied that we have reached this milestone with our consortium partner Uniper, and also the customer has put their trust in our joint offering. This project marks the beginning of our joint endeavour to deliver very high-quality and future-proof solutions to the CHP market in Germany.”

The Wärtsilä 31SG is the first of a new generation of pure gas medium speed engines, designed to set a new benchmark in efficiency and overall environmental performance. The development of this engine is a direct result of Wärtsilä’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Wärtsilä 31SG features the best fuel economy of any engine in its class. At the same time, it maintains outstanding performance across the complete operating range. Its modular design enables a significant reduction in maintenance time and costs, thereby improving power availability while reducing the need for spare parts.

Wärtsilä has 1.300 employees across nine locations in Germany, providing sales and services for marine and energy solutions in its offices and workshops, and applying state-of-the-art equipment and technologies.