Finnish Wartsila Cashes in on Myanmar Power

Finnish engineering firm Wartsila is to deliver 40-MW gas-fired power generating units to MCM Power to meet Myanmar’s increasing energy demand, it said November 25.

The baseload plant at Shwe Taung in southern-central Myanmar, will "help to alleviate the country’s ongoing energy shortage," it said. The delivery is being expedited on a fast-track basis.

The plant will operate on four Wartsila 34SG engines and is expected to become operational in April 2020. The plant is planned to double the output to 80 MW at a future date.

Myanmar's energy ministry estimates that peak demand will rise by almost a quarter in three years to 4.531 GW in 2020 from the 2018 demand of 3.500 GW. Additional power generation is, therefore, urgently needed and the plant will help MCM Power meet its power purchase agreement (PPA) obligations to supply electricity to the national grid, Wartsila said.

MCM Power CEO U Aung Hlaing Oo said: "The levelised cost of energy provided by the Wartsila solution to Shwe Taung is very favourable and the new power plant helps us to meet the obligations towards MOEE.”

Wartsila earlier supplied a 145-MW power plant to Kyaukse township in the Mandalay region of Myanmar. This also was delivered and installed on a fast-track basis because of the country’s urgent need of additional generating capacity.