MAN Diesel & Turbo has won a contract to supply a 12V35/44 gas engine with two stage turbocharging for a cogeneration facility in southern Germany owned and operated by Schwäbisch Hall Municipal Utilities. The new MAN machine has an output of 7.5 MW and will replace two existing engines – each rated at 3 MW – which have been operating since 1997. The scope of the contract includes, as well as engine and ancillaries, a catalytic converter and heat extraction engineering. The new engine will achieve an electrical efficiency of 47%, compared with 39% for the existing units, achieving 90% overall efficiency in cogeneration mode.
The new unit also brings increased operational flexibility, enabling the facility to “participate in the balancing energy market in the future”, says Hajo Hoops, senior sales manager, power plants division of MAN D&T Turbo, with the existing district heating thermal storage equipment on the site allowing “decoupling of electrical generation and heat production.”
Along with state support for cogeneration facilities, the high efficiency of the new engine is a “precondition for operating the plant economically”, says Gebhard Gentner, managing director of Schwäbisch Hall Municipal Utilities, which has more than 50 cogeneration units at 30 sites.
