Renewed Wartsila Maintenance Agreement Provides Reliability for Madrids Barajas Airport

The technology group Wärtsilä has for the fourth time renewed its long-term maintenance agreement for the power plant located at Madrid’s Barajas airport. The 5-year agreement renewal provides a tailored and optimised scope that takes into consideration the operational changes that have taken place since the plant’s installation 14 years ago. The agreement is made with Sampol Ingeniería y Obras S.A., a leading Spanish specialist company on engineering and energy services. The signing took place in October 2019.

Under the terms of the agreement, Wärtsilä will provide, among other things, maintenance management services, remote operational support, technical support with upgrade recommendations, and logistical support. Sampol is also constantly supported by a Wärtsilä advisor on site.

The 33 MW trigeneration power plant supplies electricity to the national grid, and acts as an emergency power provider for the Barajas airport. The heat and chilling provided from the exhaust gases and engine cooling waste energy, is utilised to deliver hot water and cooling only to the airport. The engine and auxiliaries were supplied by Wärtsilä on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in 2003 in collaboration with Sampol. The plant operates on six Wärtsilä 32DF dual-fuel engines running primarily on gas, but with the capability to switch to diesel in emergency mode. Since their installation in 2005, the engines have each accumulated 100,000 running hours and continue to perform with reliability and high efficiency.

David Gabiola, Power Plant Manager, Sampol, said: “Supplying power, heat and cooling to the Madrid airport is very important, and reliability is a must. The Wärtsilä plant has continued to provide this efficiency and reliability, and for that reason, we are delighted to continue our long-term relationship. The fully tailored maintenance agreement focuses on the essential for us, such us advisory services on the site. The agreement is thus cost effective and brings us major value.”

“This agreement is part of Wärtsilä’s Lifecycle solutions approach ensuring that the performance of customers’ assets matches all requirements and expectations. During the years since this plant was installed, we have worked closely with the customer to develop exactly the right kind of maintenance solution. Obviously, today’s needs are not the same as when the plant was delivered, and our agreement has the flexibility to take this into consideration,” commented Ronald Jonker, Director, Regional Operations, Europe, Wärtsilä Energy Business.