Mammoet Transports Engines for Colombia Power Plant

Mammoet has teamed up with UTC Overseas to transport and install 11 industrial engines manufactured by Finnish engineering group Wartsila for the Tesorito power generation plant in northern Colombia.

The units weighing 300 tonnes a piece were carried by road from the Port of Tolu in Sucre to El Viajano in Cordoba, a distance of more than 130 kilometres.

According to Luis Carvajal, general manager at Mammoet Colombia, the engines were the heaviest components ever transported on Colombian roads. Some of the units were delivered in convoy three at a time to speed up delivery, Mammoet said.

“Among the challenges were low-capacity bridges, pedestrian bridges, unpaved roads and very low power lines that we found along the route,” the Bogotá-based executive told Breakbulk. “All were successfully resolved.”

According to Mammoet, all preparation and civil work, including bridge reinforcement and removal of power lines, was completed prior to the cargo landing in Colombia.

The 200-megawatt gas-fired El Tesorito power plant is being built by Medellín-based Celsia, Colombia’s largest renewable energy developer.

Construction of the facility is 91 percent complete, with start-up expected by the end of the year.

Throughout South America, a region renowned for its massive hydropower capacity, the deployment of combined cycle power plants for baseload generation is seen as a go-to option to guarantee energy security.

According to projections from the UK-based Energy Industries Council, or EIC, some 210 conventional power projects are slated to begin operations region-wide by 2030, a construction drive calling for nearly US$62 billion in capital expenditure.

Mammoet USA and Houston-based UTC Overseas will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Americas 2022, taking place on 27-29 September at the George R. Brown Convention Centre in Houston, Texas.

To register for the conference, click on this link.