American energy company Invenergy has reached commercial operations at the Energía del Pacífico (EDP) LNG-to-power project, located at the Port of Acajutla in El Salvador.
According to Invenergy, the completion of EDP is a major uplift in electric reliability and lower emissions through natural gas supply to the Central American region.
At the same time, the project represents the country’s largest ever private foreign direct investment and is providing clean and reliable power to meet up to 30% of El Salvador’s energy demand.
By shifting a significant amount of power supply to natural gas, EDP reduces El Salvador’s reliance on diesel and heavy fuel oil-fired power generation, offsetting 600,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, and provides grid support to facilitate more renewable energy penetration, further diversifying the country’s energy mix, Invenergy said.
The project is comprised of a 380-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power plant, a permanently moored floating storage regasification unit ( FSRU ), a 1.8-km subsea pipeline that connects the power plant to the FSRU, and two 230-kV electric transmission lines, one of which connects to the Central American Electrical Interconnection System.
Invenergy served as the lead developer of the EDP project with the support of El Salvador-based partners Grupo Calleja, VC Energy de Centroamerica and Quantum Energy. To construct the project, Invenergy worked with a consortium of global project partners including BW LNG, BW Offshore, SAAM Towage, Boskalis, Wärtsilä, Elecnor, and Shell.
“EDP marks a step change in the clean energy transition in Central America and for our work as innovators building a sustainable world. Bringing our landmark Energia del Pacifico project online during the pandemic is nothing short of remarkable and is a testament to Invenergy’s expertise and perseverance and remains a shining example of the opportunities that can be created when private initiatives have strong local government support”, said Michael Polsky , Invenergy Founder and CEO.
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