New generators to meet rise in power demand |13 August 2014

The Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) is expected to get three new generators which will help meet the rise in demand for electricity on Mahé and Praslin.
The generators will be supplied by Wartsilla, a company based in Finland.

A contract was signed yesterday for Wartsilla to supply, install and commission two 8 megawatt (MW) engines at the Roche Caïman power plant on Mahé and one 2.3MW engine at the Baie Ste Anne power plant on Praslin.

The signing was done by the chief executive of the PUC Philippe Morin and Edze Kroneman, a representative of Wartsilla at the secretariat of the Ministry of Environment and Energy at the Le Chantier Mall.

Present to witness the signing were the Minister for Environment and Energy Professor Rolph Payet, the chairman of the PUC board Eddie Belle, PUC’s deputy chief executive Joel Valmont and the project director in the Project Management Unit of PUC Ravin Sunassee.

“For a long time we have been discussing and negotiating with Wartsilla for a contract to address production capacity issues at our power stations,” said Mr Morin.

He said as demand is continuing to rise on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue the corporation has to be well ahead of what they see coming and therefore prepare itself for the new developments that are happening and will occur in future.

“This contract will ensure that next year we get sufficient capacity to take care of demand,” said Mr Morin.
The generators are expected to be fully operational in the middle of next year.

Mr Kroneman said one of the key points put forward by PUC is to have a short delivery time and Wartsilla has anticipated the commissioning of the generators by mid next year in accordance with PUC’s plan.

Wartsilla has been working in partnership with the PUC for years now.
The Baie Ste Anne Praslin power station has an effective capacity of 11MW. Four outdated Mirrlees diesel engines which have been in operation since 1985 provides for 2MW, and two containerised Caterpillar units which have been in operation since 1996 provide for another 2MW. The remaining 7MW is provided by three Wartsilla engines and one containerised Cummings engine (1.0MW). The peak demand on Praslin stands at 7MW and is suppressed due to inadequate reliable generating capacity at the plant and the thermal limitations of the existing electrical network. The limited effective capacity at the plant makes it extremely difficult to provide for 100% coverage in electricity when one of the major engines (Wartsilla set of 3.0 MW) is under planned maintenance.

Industries such as tourism, manufacturing, fishing, etc., rely heavily on reliable supply of electricity. New developments in various sectors of the economy will in future also contribute to the increase in electrical energy demand. The implementation of this project is therefore vital in assuring reliable supply of electricity to the country and thereby sustaining these developments. It is envisaged that the generator sets will have better environmental performance than existing units. Issues of concern such as noise and exhaust emissions will be carefully addressed under the new project.