The order has been placed by Terna S.A., who has been awarded the overall project contract by Public Power Corporation S.A., the national electricity utility of Greece. Terna S.A. is one of the three major Civil and Energy contractors in Greece.

Wärtsilä already enjoys a leading role in supplying electricity to the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, and this latest order further strengthens that position. When installed, this power plant will bring the total output of electricity produced by Wärtsilä engines in the Greek islands to 690 MWe, which represents a majority share of the archipelago’s baseload supply.

The South Rhodes Power Station will generate electricity for the island’s grid from seven Wärtsilä 18V46 engines running on heavy fuel oil. The auxiliary equipment and emissions cleaning system will also be supplied by Wärtsilä. A 5+5 year’s maintenance contract for the power station unit is also under negotiation.

“We are very pleased to co-operate with Wärtsilä in the construction of the power plant of South Rhodes. We are looking forward to building a state-of-the-art power plant that meets the expectations of the Public Power Corporation of Greece and of the local community for reliable and environmentally friendly energy production,” says Mr. John Stefanatos, Senior Project Manager, Terna S.A., GEK Group.

Wärtsilä’s overall strength in the region, the competitive costs of producing energy throughout the lifetime of the plant and the fact that Wärtsilä is the only company offering 24/7 service in the islands, were the decisive factors in the company being awarded the contract.

“Our ability to provide state-of-the-art and cost efficient emissions cleaning technology to meet the strict quality and environmental standards demanded, together with the fact that we can eventually convert the plant to run on gas, further enhanced the competitive advantage of our solution,” says Harry Lindroos, Regional Director for East Europe, Wärtsilä Power Plants.

The new power station is needed to ensure a reliable supply of electricity to the tourist island of Rhodes. Demand surges dramatically during the holiday season, and the Wärtsilä decentralised multi-engine power plant solution offers a flexible and highly efficient means of meeting such increases in demand.