Siemens To Supply Power Barge in Caribbean

German and Singaporean engineering firms Siemens and ST Engineering have secured an order for a barge-mounted floating power plant in the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.

The Estrella del Mar III project in the Caribbean will combine a Siemens gas-fired 145 MW combined cycle (CCGT) power plant with a Siemens/AES-designed battery storage system; the order was placed by Bermuda-registered independent power producer Seaboard Corporation, which is active in the Dominican Republic. 

No details of the value of the order, or cost of the project, were provided in Siemens' statement of December 3. The marine division of ST Engineering will be responsible for the engineering design, procurement and construction of the floating power barge, the balance of plant and the installation of the floating power plant. Siemens will provide the hybrid 'Siestart', combining the flexible CCGT and 5MW/10 MWh battery system. The SeaFloat concept will be completed in a shipyard first, then be delivered to Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, where it is scheduled to start operations in spring 2021. A floating solution was chosen owing to limited free land nearby and the client's previous experience with power barges. 

The Dominican Republic is wholly reliant on LNG imports for its gas supply; the 2.3bn m³/yr capacity receiving terminal there at Punta Caucedo and an adjacent onshore 319 MW CCGT, both AES-owned, started operating in 2003. (The banner photo shows an artist's impression of such a floating power barge, courtesy of Siemens)

Floating power barges are not uncommon, with firms like Turkey's Powership and the UK's Aggreko leasing these out to countries in need of flexible incremental generation.