3 December 2008 – Augsburg-based engine builder MAN Diesel has further expanded its turnkey diesel power business. The company has awarded a contract from Fideicomiso Garabito, a trust created by Costa Rica’s state-owned electric power utility Grupo ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) and Banco de Costa Rica (BCR). The contract covers the design and construction of a diesel power station at Garabito near the city of Puntarenas in the West of the country. From December 2010, eleven of MAN Diesel’s most powerful medium-speed engines, the eighteen cylinder, vee configuration type 18V48/60, will feed 200 MW of electrical power into Costa Rica’s national grid. When completed the power plant will be the biggest in Costa Rica, supplying approximately 10% of the nation’s total installed electrical capacity. The value of the contract for MAN Diesel is more than 190 million Euros.

Costa Rica is counted among the stable and fast growing economies of Central and South America. At four to eight percent per year, growth in energy demand has been correspondingly high. To date, Costa Rica has been in a position to cover around 80 percent of its electrical power from hydro-electric plants. This is, however, becoming increasingly difficult and the country is dependent on alternative sources of energy, especially during the dry season which lasts from November to May. To bridge the shortfall, in future Grupo ICE will rely on diesel power stations.

Accordingly, MAN Diesel will equip the new power station at Garabito with state-of-the-art exhaust gas treatment systems. An electrostatic particle precipitator (ESP) will use electrostatic separation to remove particles from the engine exhaust gases. With this measure and the intrinsically clean combustion of the advanced 48/60 four-stroke engine, the emissions of the Garabito plant will comply with Costa Rica’s local emissions limits and those of the World Bank.

MAN Diesel‘s ability to offer low emissions, fuel efficient power stations from a single source was the decisive factor in the award of the contract. In both the development of tourism – one of the country’s largest sources of income – and its major national investments, Costa Rica insists on sustainable solutions and environmental compatibility. For this reason, it is the only Latin American country unwilling to build coal-fired power stations.

For MAN Diesel the construction of the Garabito power station is an important step in expanding its business activities in Central and South America. Following the record order from French energy supplier Electricité de France PEI SAS in October 2008, the Grupo ICE contract is MAN Diesel’s second major contract from a national energy utility within a few weeks.