MSU Energy Completes Two Combined-Cycle Conversion Projects in Argentina, an Industrial Info Market Brief

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Last week, Argentinian energy producer MSU Energy announced it completed the conversion of two natural-gas fired combustion turbines to combined-cycle turbines, one at its Villa Maria Power Plant in the province of Cordoba and another at General Rojo Power Plant in the province of Buenos Aires. Both plants, as well as the Barker Power Plant in Buenos Aires province, were built between 2016 and 2018 with an initial configuration of three 50-megawatt (MW) GE LM6000-PC Sprint natural gas-fired combustion turbines operating in simple-cycle.

In 2018, the company awarded local company A-Evangelista SA (AESA) and GE for the conversion to combined-cycle at the three plants. By 2019, a fourth 50-MW GE combustion turbine was installed at each facility, increasing the installed capacity to 200 MW per plant.

Villa Maria and General Rojo Power Plants now are producing 250 MW each, while Barker Power Plant is expected to start combined-cycle operations by the end of the year.

Between January 2016 and December 2019, Argentina kicked off construction of over 110 new-build natural gas-fired generation units with an aggregated capacity close to 5.2 gigawatts. Click here for a list, and see below for a breakdown by unit type and newbuild capacity.