Wartsila Gas Engines to Provide Reliable Electricity Supply to Subaru Car Factory and Saitama Heating and Cooling Centre

The technology group Wärtsilä will supply gas engine generating sets for two power plants operated by Tokyo Gas Engineering Solutions Corporation (TGES), a subsidiary of Tokyo Gas, the largest gas utility in Japan. In both cases, lifecycle costs, performance, and reliability of supply were highlighted as being key essentials and a major factor in the choice of Wärtsilä engines. The orders with Wärtsilä were booked in October 2017.

A Wärtsilä 34SG engine, which runs on city gas, will supply heat and electricity to SUBARU automobile manufacturing factories at its Yajima plant in Gunma, Japan. The equipment to be installed there will have an output of 9.8 MW plus heat recovery.

A Wärtsilä 34SG engine will also provide the power for the Saitama Shintoshin District Heating and Cooling (DHC) Centre, located in the Saitama Prefecture. The output will be 7.8 MW plus heat recovery, and the plant will also operate on city gas. High operational efficiency, reliability of supply, and low lifecycle costs were cited as prime considerations in selecting Wärtsilä, and in this respect the high reliability, low maintenance requirements, and competitive Capex and Opex of the Wärtsilä value proposition were deciding factors.

“TGES has experience with dozens of Wärtsilä gas engines, all of which are in operation with the oldest installation dating back to 2005. More than a decade after the first installation, TGES and Wärtsilä have continued their good relationship to improve the reliability, performance, and cost competitiveness of our power plants. Based on this background, we are pleased to provide eco-friendly energy solutions using natural gas with Wärtsilä engines to our customers", commented Naoki Osakabe, Group Manager, Engineering Research and Development Project Dept.

“Security of supply has become an increasingly important consideration for Japan’s energy sector, especially since the catastrophic earthquake of 2011. We are, therefore, very proud that Wärtsilä was selected on the basis of reliability, efficiency and low lifecycle costs,” said Kari Punnonen, Regional Director, North East Asia, Wärtsilä Energy Solutions.

The Wärtsilä equipment is scheduled to be delivered to the SUBARU Yajima plant in September 2018, and the expected launch of operations is in February 2019. Delivery of the Wärtsilä equipment to the Saitama DHC plant will take place in January 2019 and the plant is due to be operational in July of that same year. Wärtsilä and TGES will continue to work and cooperate with the aim of installing more gas engines to the Japanese market.