Siemens Wins Panama Order from Chinese

German turbine-maker Siemens said May 14 has received its first order from Panama.

The order is for six of its SGT-800 gas turbines which, along with a steam turbine, will provide some 440 MW capacity at a new flexible combined cycle power plant that is being developed by China’s Martano. It did not disclose the contract value. Commissioning of the power plant is scheduled for autumn 2020. Siemens said that the new plant could cover the entire power needs of Panama’s 1.9mn people.

Siemens’ customer is Chinese general contractor Shanghai Electric Group, which is building the plant for Martano, an independent power producer. It will be built near the seaport of Colon at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal and will run on regasified LNG imports.

Siemens said the new flexible CCGT will support the government’s plans to expand wind and solar energy and to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix to 70%. Martano won an Electricity Transmission Company of Panama tender in late 2015 to develop the new CCGT from 2019. (The banner photo above, showing a SGT-800 gas turbine, is courtesy of Siemens)

Start-up of the planned Costa Norte LNG terminal at Colon in Panama slipped from 2018 to 2019, an investor in the project said last year. Another CCGT under development at Colon by US investor AES Corp with local Panamanian partner Bahia is planned to start up first; South Korean contractor Posco E&C was awarded the $650mn contract in late 2016 to develop the latter.