Companies and important facilities like hospitals or schools often suffer breakdowns if the power supply repeatedly fails in places with poor infrastructure. The Turkish energy supplier Karpowership has developed a special solution to cater for this scenario. Decommissioned bulk carriers, heavy-cargo ships and inland waterway vessels are equipped with generators powered by LNG, diesel or heavy fuel oil and they provide power supplies from the water as floating power stations.
Rhenus Project Logistics launched the first part of the project in April – i.e. transporting the MAN 18V51/60 TS diesel engines, which are 15 metres long, five metres wide and almost seven metres high, from their production site in Saint-Nazaire in France to Cuxhaven. It was necessary to find a ship with suitable cranes to handle the very heavy engines, which each weigh 325 tonnes.
“Until we were able to ship the first engines to their place of deployment, they were initially stored at the Cuxport terminal in a building with sufficient ceiling height so that they were protected from any moisture,” says Marcus Janowsky, Project Manager at Rhenus Project Logistics. The engines were moved on self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) for this purpose.
Six of the 13 generators then set off on board the “BBC Lagos” on their way to Tuzla in Turkey on 9 November. “The project is particularly important for us, because it firstly demonstrates the excellent cooperation between the different companies and units within the Rhenus Group. Secondly, handling this large and bulky load overland and on the water always requires special sensitivity and very precise planning – and we were able to provide this here,” says Marcus Janowsky, summarising the course of the project. The generators arrived in Turkey at the end of November and were able to be installed. The remaining seven generators are due to be shipped during the next few months.
Overall, Karpowership operates 22 floating power stations in more than ten different countries. According to the energy supplier, they meet the energy needs of about 34 million people.