Wartsila to Provide Gas Engines for Oregon Power Plant, USA

Wärtsilä has received an order to supply the generating sets and related auxiliary equipment for a new power plant being built near Clatskanie in the state of Oregon, USA.

The Port Westward Unit 2 plant is being built for Portland General Electric Company, an investor owned utility. It will be powered by 12 Wärtsilä 50SG natural gas fuelled engines with an electrical output of approximately 220 MW, and is scheduled to be fully operational by 2015.

The Wärtsilä 50SG gas engine will allow Portland General Electric to have the operational flexibility to quickly respond to variable input levels of wind and hydro power to the system. Flexibility and high net electrical efficiency are salient features of the Wärtsilä 50SG units.

“The global trend in power generation is clearly moving towards greater flexibility and increased efficiency, and this order is yet another example. As utilities continue to integrate increasing levels of renewable power into their systems, the old traditional power plants are simply not capable of reacting quickly enough. Additionally, the Wärtsilä gas fuelled solutions feature low emissions, and this combination of flexibility, efficiency, and environmental sustainability is very much in demand,” says Wayne Elmore, Regional Director, Power Plants Sales, Wärtsilä North America.

To date, Wärtsilä has delivered power plants to the United States with a total output of more than 2,000 MW. Wärtsilä has an extensive reference list of power plant installations in the USA, including recent orders for power plant projects in Texas, California and Alaska. The Port Westward Unit 2 project and the power plant in Texas will be the first power plants in the USA using Wärtsilä 50SG engines.

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LNG World News Staff, February 04, 2013; Image: Wartsila