Letters | Sunday, 21 June 2009

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Facts and fiction on the Delimara tender

The storm raised by the award of the contract for new generating equipment for Delimara has resulted in a shouting match of the deaf. Quite apart from the correctness or otherwise of the tendering procedure, there are some hard technical facts that have got lost in the hubbub.
Leaving aside the question of cost of the various items in the contract to the last, a typical statement is the following: “BWSC have reportedly submitted a prototype, never tested and highly polluting technology which runs on heavy fuel oil and will require handling between 50 and 60 tonnes of toxic waste a day”. Variants also described the technology as “antiquated”, which clashes with an untried prototype.
“Reportedly” is presumably intended to absolve MaltaToday from any inaccuracies in the above statement – which is just as well, as there are plenty. The BWSC engines – which may in fact be manufactured by MAN or Wartsil, constitute a well-proven technology which had been installed in numerous places word wide – from Bermuda and the Bahamas, to Corsica, Crete, Cyprus and Pakistan. No complaints or obvious design defects have been reported. While use of heavy fuel oil makes it highly polluting intrinsically, the abatement devices provided make it cleaner than Marsa, which may not be saying much of course. Abatement devices include dust filters, and SO2 and NOx removers. The action of these devices are shown in the Enemalta “green” adverts, which compare the amounts of dust, SO2 and NOx that go into the atmosphere in the two cases.
The abatement of SO2 would generate about 35 tonne of sodium sulphate daily which, with the dust from filters could reach 40 tonne of waste. The cost of cleaning the exhaust gases has not been given; it should be if a proper cost comparison of the two systems – piston engines with HFO and a Combined Cycle Gas turbine with diesel – are to be properly compared. Mention of natural gas is pointless at this time as we do not have a supply and are unlikely to have one by commissioning time for the piston engines i.e. 2011.
One final point that has not been mentioned is that the piston engines, being relatively small units of 18MW, will provide Delimara with a flexible supply; and that flexibility may be crucial in dealing with fluctuations from the Sikka l-Bajda wind farm.

Edward A. Mallia
Attard

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