The technology group Wärtsilä has signed a ten-year long-term service agreement covering two industrial combined heat and power (CHP) plants in Italy. The plants operate with highly efficient Wärtsilä 31SG gas engines, and supply electricity, steam, and hot water for industrial use. The agreement took effect in January 2022, and the order intake was booked in Q4, 2021.

The Guaranteed asset performance agreement covers altogether five Wärtsilä 31SG gas engines, and is designed to ensure the plants’ reliability and availability, which are essential for maintaining the customer’s production schedules. The full maintenance scope includes an availability guarantee that is implemented with a resident engineer on site plus remote support from Wärtsilä’s Expertise Centre in Trieste.

The high efficiency of the engine generating sets creates both energy cost savings and reduced levels of emissions. Furthermore, it opens the possibility to obtain the Italian White Certificate, which aims to promote energy efficiency measures by final energy users, and which is one of the most complete examples of baseline and trade incentive schemes existing in Europe.

“Long-term service agreements are an integral element within Wärtsilä’s lifecycle services offering. They are based on utilisation of the latest digital technologies combined with our extensive know-how and understanding of power generation installations, as well as their optimisation at system level. The bottom line is that we guarantee plant availability, which for any industrial company is critical. What is more, by ensuring efficient operations we are supporting global efforts to decarbonise operations,” says Pekka Tolonen, Energy Business Director, Europe, Wärtsilä Energy.

Wärtsilä has a strong presence in Italy with a delivery centre and an Energy Expertise Centre in Trieste, and service offices in Genoa, Naples, and Taranto. To date, the company has delivered 1,411 MW of power plant capacity to Italy, of which 709 MW are currently covered by Wärtsilä long-term service agreements.