(EnergyAsia, July 1, Tuesday) — Finland-based Wärtsilä said it has been awarded contracts to supply two power plants of combined output of 90 MWe to Papua New Guinea.

The orders were made by China ENFI Engineering Corporation.

The power plants will be installed at the Ramu nickel mine and the nickel refinery in the port area in the Madang region.

The Ramu nickel mine is being developed by the Chinese state-owned mining and natural resources exploitation concern China Metallurgical Group (MCC) and its partners.

The power stations will supply electricity to the entire nickel mining and refining project facilities and will complement the existing 120 MWe of power supported by Wärtsilä in the region.

ENFI Ramu Nickel Project team spokesperson said:  “Wärtsilä is one of the world’s leading power plant equipment suppliers. Our commercial and technical evaluation team did exhaustive work to compare proposals made by Wärtsilä and other leading power plant equipment suppliers.

“Considering the project’s tight schedule, we selected Wärtsilä to supply these power plants since the equipment model and delivery time proposed by Wärtsilä met the project needs. Furthermore, we put considerable value on Wärtsilä’s after service capability in the PNG area which, considering the location of the power plants is a great advantage.”

Wärtsilä will supply the equipment together with an engineering and technical assistance package. The refinery installation will include a heat recovery system with the waste heat being utilised in the complex refinery process.

Both installations are scheduled to be completed before the end of 2009.
  
Raymond Vinton, Australian Wärtsilä business development manager for power plants, said:
“Wärtsilä’s portfolio of medium speed engines enabled us to find a configuration that suits the customer’s needs. Combined with the after sales support that we can offer from our new Papua New Guinea service centre, these have helped us to secure this valuable order.”

Wärtsilä said the power plants will be installed with some spare capacity due to the remote location of the installations.
  
Wärtsilä, listed on The Nordic Exchange in Helsinki, Finland, focuses on the marine and energy markets.