Scottish temporary power firm Aggreko yesterday announced a contract worth about £35million as demand for its international power-project arm services continues to grow.
Aggreko said it had signed the lucrative deal with the national utility company of Cote d’Ivoire.
Under the contract, the Glasgow-based firm will provide 70 megawatts (MW) of temporary power fuelled by natural gas to support the African country’s national grid for the next two years.
The Ivorians hope the project will help to reduce power cuts and stabilise their national power grid after recent plant breakdowns.
Aggreko said: “Given the urgency of the requirement, we will begin mobilising equipment to Cote d’Ivoire as soon as the usual contractual protections and guarantees have been put in place.”
It is the first contract Aggreko has been awarded in the west African state, and will also be its largest gas-fuelled project to date.
The firm has more than a decade of experience in Africa, where it is supplying more than 1,000MW of power in 17 countries.
It started investing in gas-fuelled power generation four years ago and now has fleet capacity in this area of business of more than 250MW.
Aggreko chief executive Rupert Soames said gas plants historically took many months to build but the Ivorians would get theirs in “a matter of weeks”.
The firm expects to have the new power plant operational in May. Once commissioned, it will be generating 24 hours a day.
Aggreko’s international power-project arm instals and operates temporary power plants and sells their output to governments, utilities, the military and major industrial users.
Earlier this month, Aggreko said it aimed to grow the international power-projects business “as fast as we prudently can”.
The division now accounts for 44% of group revenue and 63% of trading profits.
Aggreko also has a local business arm, which supplies customers with equipment ranging from small generators to large cooling plants.