In May 2007, Wärtsilä was awarded a contract from JB Enertek Co., Ltd., South Korea,
to deliver engineering and equipment (EEQ) in
two phases for a 25.3 MWe combined heat and
power plant (CHP).
The plant is located in Cheong
Soo community in Cheon Ahn City, approximately
100 kilometres south of Seoul, Korea.
The purpose of the Cheong Soo trigeneration
plant is to provide district heating and electricity
to a suburban area covering approximately three square kilometres with about 6400 households
and public buildings. The first phase of the project comprised two Wärtsilä 20V34SG natural
gas-fuelled generating sets equipped with a
heat recovery system for district heating purposes. Phase 1 was commissioned and handed
over in February 2010. The second phase consists of an identical genset to the previous and
is scheduled to be completed in 2015. The three
gensets generate electricity in parallel with the electrical grid and supply district heating to the
town network.
During the warm summer periods
the plant provides district cooling as well.
Due to tariff policy in South Korea, selling
only electrical power to the grid is not feasible.
At night, the electrical load in the suburban area
is so low that the amount of heat generated by
the engines at this time is significantly reduced
compared to daytime. Unfortunately, the amount
of heat needed by households during this period of time in the 24-hour cycle is at its maximum. This is why installing a heat accumulator
comes into question: it allows the Cheong Soo
plant – operating essentially in island mode – to
run continuously on high load and thus, at high
levels of total efficiency (more than 85% in this
case). The additional heat generated during daytime is partly stored in the accumulator for use
during the following night.
This was the first CHP project delivered by
Wärtsilä in South Korea under the CES (Community Energy System) concept which is based on South Korean legislation to encourage decentralized energy production. The objective of
the CES concept is to supply electricity and heat
from independent power production facilities to commercial, residential, business and hospital
buildings in specific areas.
After the completion of the second phase,
the total electrical output of the plant will be
raised to 25 MWe and thermal output to 21
MWth. Wärtsilä designs, procures and delivers
the equipment as well as provides technical
advisory services at site during the installation
and commissioning works. The erection and
installation of the equipment is carried out by
JB Enertek and local contractors.
