Gas

Mitsubishi Power to supply gas turbines for Brazil’s largest peaker plant

At 1.6 GW of capacity, UTE Portocem will be one of the largest power plants ever built in Latin America.
Mitsubishi Power to supply gas turbines for Brazil’s largest peaker plant
Image of the site where the Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) will be chartered by Portocem and permanently moored within the basin of the Port of Pecém. Credit: Complexo do Pecém.

Mitsubishi Power is part of a new consortium that has signed a contract with Portocem Geração de Energia S.A. to build the Portocem Thermoelectric Power Plant (UTE Portocem) in Brazil.

Portocem Geração de Energia S.A. was the biggest winner of the first power capacity reserve auction in Brazil, held in December 2021, to contract power for the National Interconnected System (SIN). With 1.6 GW of capacity, UTE Portocem will be one of the largest power plants ever built in Latin America.

Under the agreement, Mitsubishi Power will supply four M501JAC gas turbines which will operate in simple cycle at UTE Portocem. UTE Portocem represents Mitsubishi Power’s third advanced class gas turbine project in Brazil over the past six years.

Engineering company CONSAG will supply the balance of plant (BoP), utilities, civil works, assembly, and commissioning of the plant as well as the implementation of transmission lines and substations supplying the BoP.

The project is designed to balance the intermittent energy coming from renewable sources on Brazil’s national grid. The start of construction was marked with a groundbreaking ceremony on May 5th, 2023.

UTE Portocem will be constructed in the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex, located in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza.

A 6 km transmission line will connect the plant to the National Interconnected System (SIN) through the Pecém 2 substation. A Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) will be chartered by Portocem and permanently moored within the basin of the Port of Pecém.

The development is being designed to have power generation capacity readily available to dispatch at times when the electrical system needs extra reinforcement to meet demand peaks, according to dispatch decisions by the National System Operator (ONS).

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