By Oke Peter
Technology group Wärtsilä has signed a ten-year Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Agreement for a captive power plant providing the energy for a Nigerian cement producing facility. The new cement plant is owned by Mangal Industries and is located in Kogi State, Nigeria. The order was booked by Wärtsilä in Q2, 2024.
The power plant is critical to the facility’s cement production since the site is remotely located with limited access to the electricity grid. It 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.
“We are reliant on the power plant for our operations. This is why we have 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,” said Fahad Mangal, Managing Director, Mangal Industries Limited.
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.
“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,” comments Patrick Borstner, Director, Operations Africa at Wärtsilä Energy.
Nigeria has an increasing demand for cement for its many infrastructure projects, and there has been a domestic supply gap. With this new plant, Mangal will partly address this issue.
