Wärtsilä, a technology group, has signed a ten-year Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Agreement with Mangal Industries, a Nigerian cement producing facility, to service the partner’s 50 megawatts (MW) power plant.
In a statement seen by BusinessDay, the order was booked by Wärtsilä in the second quarter of 2024.
Owned by Mangal Industries, the new cement plant is located in Kogi State, Nigeria, and is critical to the facility’s cement production since the site is remotely located with limited access to the electricity grid.
According to the release, the facility operates with five Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel engines delivering an output of 50 MW. The O&M agreement is designed to ensure that the facility can reliably maintain its cement production target of three million metric tons per year.
Patrick Borstner, director, operations Africa at Wärtsilä Energy, said: “Wärtsilä now has more than 400 MW of installed capacity for the cement industry in Nigeria, and we are operating three captive power plants in three different states.
“This successful track record clearly indicates our capabilities and highlights the added value we can deliver to our customers through our experience and expertise in supporting their operations.”
According to the partners, the ten-year agreement starts immediately as the facility commences operations in Q2, 2024, running on liquid fuel initially.
The facility will switch to natural gas operation when the natural gas pipeline will be commissioned. The power plant’s dual-fuel engines can be operated both on liquid fuel and natural gas and could be converted to operate with future low- or zero-carbon fuels when they become available.
“We are reliant on the power plant for our operations,” said Fahad Mangal, Managing Director, Mangal Industries Limited.
According to him, this is why the company opted to take advantage of Wärtsilä’s depth of experience and know-how to run and maintain the power plant. “Not only will the agreement provide the assured reliability we need, but it also gives us cost predictability.”
