POWER September 2015 - 28

TOP PLANTS
IPP3, Amman, Jordan
Owner/operator: Amman Asia Electric Power Co.
Courtesy: Wärtsilä Corp.
For many people, when the topic of peaking power plants arises, gas turbines come
to mind. But as this world record-holding plant demonstrates, there are several reasons,
including fuel flexibility and grid-supporting capabilities, that you may want
to consider internal combustion engine technology to capture peaks and more.
Aaron Larson
S
haring borders with Saudi Arabia, Israel,
Syria, and Iraq, Jordan sits in a
very precarious part of the world. To
make matters worse, the country's economy
is among the smallest in the Middle East.
Chronic high rates of poverty, unemployment,
inflation, and a large budget deficit
have resulted in a challenging situation for
its government, which must rely heavily on
foreign assistance.
The country is also handicapped by very
limited water supplies and natural resources.
According to The World Bank Group, the average
annual rainfall in Jordan is only about 4
inches, with less than 0.1 inch of that received
from June 1 through September 30. Unlike
some other nations in the region, Jordan is
not flush with oil and must import virtually
all of its energy needs.
Further exacerbating the situation, Jordan
has had to deal with an influx of refugees escaping
civil war in Syria. In July 2015, the
United Nations Refugee Agency estimated
that more than 4 million Syrians had fled the
country, of which 629,128 were said to be in
Jordan, which has a little more than 7 million
people of its own.
Instability Requires Flexibility
In 2011, Jordan faced an energy crisis when
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the Arab Spring-a series of anti-government
protests, riots, and armed rebellions-spread
across the Middle East, resulting in attacks
on Egyptian natural gas pipelines, which cut
off the fuel for 80% of Jordan's power generation.
Those events led the National Electric
Power Co. of Jordan (NEPCO) to seek
a grid-stabilizing independent power plant
(IPP) in an effort to reduce its dependency on
Egyptian natural gas.
Fuel flexibility was important. Having the
ability to source liquefied natural gas (LNG)
from anywhere in the world or burn fuel oil, if
necessary, was seen as a way to help provide
the energy security Jordan desired. Wärtsilä
offered what it believed was the best option,
but it faced a challenge. Upma Koul, business
development manager for Wärtsilä, explained
that a common attitude among decision makers
around the globe is that combined cycle
gas turbines are the preeminent power plant
technology.
" The biggest challenge we face is to
change the mindset, " Koul told POWER. " To
break the mindset, we have to show the value
of our solution and how the country could
benefit from it. "
To do that, Wärtsilä performed a grid
study. The company then demonstrated how
its power plant could be integrated into the
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grid system and how it would allow existing
power plants to operate at higher load factors,
which would in turn allow them to run
at higher efficiencies. When all factors were
considered, the results showed that implementing
Wärtsilä's solution would decrease
fuel consumption on the grid without affecting
the operation and maintenance of the
system.
A New World Record
With its original mindset broken, NEPCO
chose Wärtsilä, along with Lotte Engineering
& Construction, to build a new state-of-the-art
facility. IPP3-owned and operated by Amman
Asia Electric Power Co. (AAEPC)-is
sited near the capital city, Amman. Powered
by 38 Wärtsilä 18V50DF multi-fuel engines,
the combined plant capacity is 573 MW, making
it the world's largest internal combustion
engine power plant. Guinness World Records
issued a certificate verifying the accomplishment
on October 23, 2014.
More impressive than the size of the plant,
though, is its flexibility. The engines can be
run on three different fuels-natural gas,
light fuel oil, or heavy fuel oil (HFO)-and
have the ability to change fuels on the fly,
even while operating at load. By design, output
is the same regardless of the fuel used.
POWER | September 2015
http://www.powermag.com
POWER September 2015

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