Ansaldo Energia took part on 22-23 February at the Seminar-Workshop dedicated to the Ecological Transition in Tunisia, organized in Tunis by ICE - Agency / Commercial Section of the Italian Embassy.
Francesco Italiano, head of Tunis branch, participated for our company: focus of his speech, the experience of Ansaldo Energia in Tunisia and the history of the construction of the Mornaguia power plant. An open cycle plant with a total power of 625 MW, it has represented in many aspects, from the respect of delivery times to the synergy between all the forces involved, a project of crucial importance for our Group.
In this context, we had the opportunity to meet our customer STEG (Société Tunisienne de l'Électricité et du Gaz) at Mornaguia power plant and show to ICE Agency and Italian Investor Delegation the success of this project. Ansaldo Energia, together with STEG, is actually committed to ensuring the availability of electricity necessary for the sustainable development and energy transition of the country, with the supply of the most efficient and effective technology to enable the reduction of emissions into the atmosphere.
The cooperation between Ansaldo Energia and STEG for Mornaguia project started in 2018, when STEG awarded our company a turnkey contract for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of this gas-fired open-cycle 625 MW thermoelectric power plant. The plant features two AE94.3A gas turbines, with their two generators and auxiliary systems, all produced in Ansaldo Energia's Genoa plant. A Service Agreement (LTSA) is in place covering all maintenance and service work in the plant.
Ansaldo Energia got to work as soon as the contract went into effect, and the initial implementation phase was accelerated due to the urgent need to satisfy the demand for energy in Tunisia. Under the agreements signed with the customer in 2018, the country's power grid was to have an additional 300 MW of power before the summer of 2019, which meant completing the first unit of the power plant in record time: an ambitious challenge in view of the extensive civil works required. The hard work and technical know-how of the people involved in erection and commissioning allowed the project to stay on schedule, and the plant was officially inaugurated and started up on 13 June, 2019. In the summer of 2019 electricity consumption reached a record-breaking peak of 4.250 MW, and Ansaldo Energia made an important contribution to supplying this demand. A team of Italian and Tunisian engineers worked on the site for 10 months, forming a single team jointly with STEG and local partners.
The second half of the project programme was slowed down by the global COVID-19 emergency. Authorisation was obtained to continue working non-stop even during the lockdown of March through May 2020 in order to achieve priority goals guaranteeing sufficient electricity generation to satisfy demand in Tunisia: the new electrical power plant was to produce 625 MW of power by the summer of 2020. On 26 June 2020 Ansaldo Energia signed the Industrial Operation, and the PAC was signed on 10 November 2020, perfectly on schedule.
