Technology group Wärtsilä has signed a ten-year Long-Term Optimised Maintenance Agreement with Xcel Energy, an investor-owned utility based in Minnesota, USA. The agreement covers their two new power plants located in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The order was booked by Wärtsilä in Q3, 2024.

The Blue Lake plant, once in operation, will run on three Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel engines delivering an output of 29 MW. The Wheaton plant features five Wärtsilä 34DF engines having a power output of 48 MW. The fast-starting engines provide effective grid-balancing power to compensate for fluctuations in the supply of energy from renewable energy sources.

The scope of the agreement includes remote support from Wärtsilä’s Expertise Centers, as well as all spare parts for the engines and advisory services during overhauls. Furthermore, for the first two years the company will have engineers on site at the two plants to provide assistance as needed.

“We continue to sign service agreements for our installed power plant base, which indicates the high level of trust that exists between Wärtsilä and our customers. We congratulate Xcel Energy for its commitment to sustainable energy, and we are proud to support them in their decarbonisation efforts,” comments Kees de Grijs, General Manager, Business Development, Agreements & Upgrades, Region North at Wärtsilä Energy.

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 extensive in-house know-how and understanding of power generation installations, as well as their optimisation at system level.