Wartsila engine plant boosts Senegal power capacity

Plant is one of the first public-private partnership projects in West Africa  

The power generation capacity of Senegal has been boosted by the launch of a new power plant running on heavy fuel oil engines.

It was one of the first public-private partnership projects in West Africa, involving the Africa Development Bank, investment platform Africa50, the Infrastructure Development Fund for Africa, and Senelec, Senegal’s state power utility.

The Malicounda plant in Mbour, 85 km south of Dakar, is expected to deliver 956GWh of power a year and its operator, energy company Matelec, claims it will raise the country’s power generation capacity by a 17%.  

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The engines, which can also run on natural gas in the future, have been supplied by Finnish energy company Wärtsilä, which is Senegal’s leading provider of power generating equipment and already has 543MW of installed capacity in 20 plants across the country.

The Malicounda plant comprises seven 18V50 engines and a steam turbine. Wärtsilä said its fast load-following power capability “means that the plant is ideally suited to maintain system reliability, and able to offer the flexibility needed as intermittent renewable energy is progressively added to Senegal’s power grid”.

The plant is part of the government’s Plan Sénégal Emergent to strengthen the country’s emerging economy and provide electricity access to everyone by 2025.

“We are confident that that this highly efficiency plant will enable Senegal to reduce electricity production costs,” said Marc Thiriet, director for Africa at Wärtsilä Energy. 

Listen: Podcast with Anja Frada, chief operating officer of Wärtsilä Energy.