MAN Diesel & Turbo has agreed to build a turnkey diesel power plant in Kenya in partnership with independent energy production company Thika Power
The plant, which will be situated in Thika City near Nairobi, will supply energy to the Kenya Power and Lighting Company.
“The African continent offers huge potential for our power plants unit,” said Dr René Umlauft, chief executive officer of MAN Diesel & Turbo.
“Our power plant solutions can help to bridge the existing energy supply gap in many parts of the continent swiftly and smoothly.”
The power plant in Thika will be the first in Africa to use MAN’s diesel combined cycle product package.
It will be made up of five MAN 18V48/60 four-stroke engines, which will produce a total of 88MW of electricity. The waste heat from the engines will be used to power a MAN MARC2 stream turbine, which has been calculated to generate a further 6.8MW of electricity.
The combination of diesel engines and a steam turbine will produce nine per cent more electricity from the same fuel consumption, increasing the overall efficiency of the plant.
According to Dr Umlauft, the power plant in Thika will become a landmark project for MAN Diesel &Turbo in Africa, which will create new market opportunities for the company. Construction work on the Thika facility has already commenced and the plant is due to start operations in the spring of 2013.
