Designed to operate with five MAN 18V48/60 engines and a MAN MARC® steam turbine, the new power plant has a production capacity of up to 96 MW. It is the second plant in Africa to make use of MAN’s diesel combined cycle product package. The waste heat from the engines powers a steam turbine, which in turn generates 6.6 MW of electricity.
The power plant, which is located in Tobène in the region of Thiès, 90 km north of Dakar, will supply to the national grid that is operated by Senegal’s national electricity company, SENELEC. It will generate the equivalent of 15 percent of the country’s current electricity consumption. This electricity will be used to power businesses, shops, universities and houses, thus providing a whole host of new opportunities for growth within Senegal, which currently experiences recurring power outages.
“The new plant uses our diesel combined cycle product package, which offers outstanding performance and excellent environmental standards. Thanks to the second cycle using a MARC® steam turbine, fuel consumption is lowered by 6 percent and CO2 emissions are also reduced for any kWh produced,” says Mesut Yentur, CEO of MAN Diesel Turbo France and Head of Power Plant Sales in the French-speaking regions of Western Africa.
Thanks to its effective partnership with MATELEC, a Lebanese company specialising in electricity infrastructures, MAN has managed to get the plant commissioned in record time. “We are very happy with this project,” says Sami Soughayar, CEO of MATELEC. “Our collaboration with MAN Diesel Turbo proved to be highly professional and a great success. With project teams being perfectly coordinated, it only took just over 15 months for the power plant to be able to deliver its first MW to the Senegalese national grid.”
With the existing plant having now been taken over by MAN PrimeServ, MAN Diesel Turbo’s service brand, to ensure best-in-class maintenance is provided, an expansion is already planned. By adding a diesel engine, the plant’s generation capacity will be increased from 96 MW to 115 MW by the end of the second working phase.
MAN Diesel Turbo is witnessing a rise in its activities in Africa. Having had a presence in South Africa since 2008 and in Dakar since 2010, the company opened a new Sales Service office in Lagos, Nigeria in 2015 and is currently building plants in Gambia, Eritrea, Niger and Burkina Faso. These successes are based on more than 50 years of doing business in Africa. During that time, over 3.2 gigawatts of generation capacity have been installed in 37 African countries.