Attached File 1 : Termonorte engine power plant in Colombia.jpg

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) held a ceremony last Saturday in Colombia’s northern city of Santa Marta to celebrate the completion of 'Termonorte' engine power plant, attended by Colombian President Iván Duque; Lee Ki-dong, COO of HHI’s Engine Division, Kim Doo-sik, Korean ambassador to Colombia; and other dignitaries.

In February last year, HHI signed a contract with Axia, a Colombian independent power producer, to build this 93-MW powerhouse equipped with dual-fuel engines for USD 80.6 million.

Termonorte houses 10 units of Type-V dual-fuel HiMSEN (model no.: H35DFV), the latest model of HHI’s own-designed engine, with a capacity of 9.3 megawatts each. Boasting a significant improvement in output compared with the previous model, this eco-friendly and highly efficient engine can run on both liquefied natural gas and diesel, a feature that contributes to reducing emissions and fuel costs.

To tackle the chronic power shortages, Colombia has been focusing all its efforts on expanding energy generating facilities. The level of priority given to this nationwide initiative is well demonstrated by the high profile of attendees at the ceremony, including the president and a number of high ranking government officials.

Of the five engine power plants HHI has built in Colombia which can generate up to 123 megawatts of power collectively, Termonorte is the largest in scale and capacity.

As their relatively low construction costs make engine power plants a preferred choice across Latin America, HHI reasonably expects to sign further contracts with countries in this area on a consistent basis.

“Termonorte has symbolic importance as it is the first dual-fuel engine power station HHI built at a time when environmental awareness is rapidly growing across the globe,” said Lee Ki-dong, COO of Engine Division. “With this successful first step, we expect our efforts to secure further orders from Latin American countries will gather momentum.”

HiMSEN is the registered brand name of HHI’s 4-stroke engine developed in 2000 based on its own technological expertise, currently capturing about a 20% share in the global market for medium-sized engines. Adding to the existing lineup under this brand name, HHI launched in 2012 a dual-fuel model and has made successful inroads into the eco-friendly engine market by securing orders for about 280 units of this greener engine for vessels and about 30 for power plants in total so far.