Page 27 - CARILEC CE Journal CEMAY2021
P. 27
KARMOL’s 125,000 cbm Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (“FSRU”) en route to Dakar from Singapore - where it was
built – in order to supply re-gasified LNG to the existing Powership, other power plants as well as to the local industry.
diverted in other sectors that are in need such as Powership start supplying base-load power to the
healthcare, education or infrastructure. grid within a sensational time frame of only 58 days
Rather than going down this rocky path, Cuba took after contract signing.
a leap of faith and decided to contract Powerships to By that time, Senegal was already suffering from
supply immediate, reliable and economic electricity. the poor performance of existing diesel generation
Within a couple of months after the contract which was causing extremely high generation costs,
signature, 3 Powerships (1 X 36 MW and 2 X 79 MW) and coal power plants which couldn’t cope with any
were deployed to Cuba by Karpowership and started intermittent renewable generation assets. Moreover,
their seamless operations, supplying base-load this generation had negative spillover effects for the
power. After the arrival of Powerships in Cuba, the environment.
island’s grid has been stabilized like never before and However, the addition of a 225 MW combined-
black-outs are prevented through Powerships’ unique cycle, dual-fuel Powership not only brought the
load following capability. Moreover, Powerships average electricity costs down, but also established
have started to become fully dispatched as they are reliable generation. The Powership was strategically
the cheapest source of thermal electricity in Cuba’s located close to the city center, a place completely
dispatch profile. Thanks to the existing reliable and occupied by buildings where it was not possible
dispatchable generation via Powerships, existing to build any land-based power generation
renewables are utilized in a more efficient way and infrastructure, but also a perfect location to transmit
further importantly now, new renewable generation the power to different parts of the capital city Dakar
projects in Cuba are on their way. and even to other neighboring cities.
A similar success story was also observed in the The Powership in Dakar operated on HFO for a
West African Country, Senegal. As the country was temporary time and now is planning to switch to
suffering from a lack of generation capacity as LNG once KARMOL’s newly built 125,000 cbm FSRU
well as underperformance of existing capacity, the “KARMOL LNGT Powership Africa” arrives - which
ultimate solution was brought via a Powership, but is on its way from Singapore to Dakar at the time
this time with a further added value, the introduction of writing this Article. Senegalese authorities also
of an LNG supply chain into the country. Thanks plan to switch their existing 90 MW Bel-Air power
to having readily available Powership assets in its plant to natural gas and procure the LNG that will
fleet, Karpowership managed to deliver its 225 MW be supplied by the FSRU. Once this great switch to
27