RECIP III

The RECIP Engines are one of the favored alternatives in our Strategic Plan “Energia Aruba 2025”. They perform at an efficiency level of about 41% - 43% compared to 28% - 29% of the Boiler-Turbine combination. Next to this studies are being done to continue with the use of the wind as a sustainable energy source.

A series of considerations where considered at the moment of choosing the company to develop an amount of new RECIP Engines for the WEB. Together with PIB and others an analysis and financial evaluation took place of offers by MAN Diesel of Germany and Wärtsila of Finland, to develop a project; the third phase of the RECIP units. The economical evaluation made the Wärtsila option the most adequate and optimal.

The evaluation team made this recommendation to the management of WEB and the board of directors of the Utilities Aruba for there approval. Ing. Francis Ras as the Project Leader gives an impression of the development of the price of the engines for the third phase of the RECIP project. Initially the euro was very high at the moment of negotiations. At a certain moment the euro versus the dollar resulted in favor of the WEB during the negotiations and we made a substantial profit by signing early with Wärtsilä. Mr. Ras is talking about saving approximately 6 to 7 million dollars.
When the price was agreed and the technical commercial detail’s had been negotiated, the Wärtsilä and WEB teams signed a contract on 2nd of Juli, 2009 even before the official ceremony. Wärtsila won the offer based on the price it presented and the “return on investment” that this represents for WEB.

An analysis was made of operational and maintenance costs both for MAN as for Wärtsila and both the engines compared. The results of this comparison were very similar, but Wärtsila surpassed. Other important aspects are technical such as the consumption of fuel with Wärtsilä resulted better than its competitor MAN. So for every barrel used in the Finnish Engine, more energy was produced.

Another aspect that had an impact was that WEB had working experience with Wärtsila. This company had delivered phase II of the RECIP within the allotted time. In phase III of the RECIP, Wärtsilä promised to finish the job in 14 months compared to 17 by MAN. This evidently had an impact as each month that the engine is not in operation, cannot be translated into the reduction in fuel oil consumption.

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