The inauguration of the world's largest gas-fired power plant based on combustion engines took place on 29 September 2010 at the Aliaga power plant in Turkey.
The ceremony was conducted by Wärtsilä CFO, executive vice president Raimo Lind, accompanied by Finland's Ambassador to Turkey, Kirsti Eskelinen. The Aliaga combined cycle power plant was built in three phases: the first phase was contracted in 2006, with two extensions added later in 2008. Wärtsilä equipment was specified for all three stages of the plant's development, and altogether the power plant now has 28 Wärtsilä 20V34SG gas-fired generating sets, with the capability to produce more than 270MW of electricity in combined cycle mode.
At the time of the inauguration, six of the Wärtsilä engines were running, with the remainder to come on stream as soon as the additional transmission line serving the plant has been completed. The electricity produced by the Aliaga plant will then be sold to the Turkish spot market through the balancing mechanism, and will serve around 350,000 households. Wärtsilä has a workshop located on the site to provide full service support to the plant's operations, and also maintains the first phase (four engines producing 35MW of energy) of the Aliaga Cakmaktepe power plant under a maintenance agreement.