Wartsila to provide equipment for 156 MW Standing Bear Lake Station in Douglas County

The technology group Wärtsilä will supply equipment for a 156 MW multi-fuel engine power plant to Omaha Public Power District, a public electric utility in the state of Nebraska in the United States. The power plant will be part of the utility’s Power with Purpose project, which will add 400 to 600 MW of utility-scale solar generation along with additional dispatchable balancing power. Since the production of renewable energy varies over the day and is dependent on the weather situation, Wärtsilä’s technology with fast-starting internal combustion engines will be used to balance the power generation to the grid and ensure system stability.

The contract is included in Wärtsilä’s order intake for the second quarter of 2021. The equipment will be delivered during the second half of 2022, and the plant is scheduled to begin commercial operations in May 2023.

The new Standing Bear Lake Station plant will be located in Douglas County, Nebraska, and will include nine 18-cylinder Wärtsilä 50DF engines operating on natural gas and light fuel oil as needed. Wärtsilä’s multi-fuel engine technology provides fuel resiliency with engines capable of burning natural gas, light fuel oil, and even hydrogen blends. Wärtsilä engines can later be converted to carbon-neutral fuels to further enhance decarbonization.