Magdalena Sugar Mill plant
| This article is part of the Global Bioenergy Power Tracker, a Global Energy Monitor project. |
Magdalena Sugar Mill plant, known as Planta Eléctrica Ingenio Magdalena in Spanish, is a power plant in Guatemala capable of burning a variety of fuels, including biomass, coal and bunker.
Location
The satellite photo below shows the plant's location in La Democracia, Escuintla, Guatemala.
Background
The Ingenio Magdalena power station has six generating units known as Units 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The first four of these were placed into service between 1990 and 2008.[1] (As of July 2023, Units 1 and 3 do not qualify for inclusion in GEM's Global Bioenergy Power Tracker because their capacity falls below the tracker's minimum 30 MW per unit threshold.[2])
In September 2011, Ingenio Magdalena announced plans to convert its onsite power plant to run on a mix of biomass and coal, and to increase generation capacity to 120 megawatts with the installation of two 60 MW turbo-generators.[3] The upgraded units were designed to run on bagasse (cellulose fiber from crushed sugar cane stalks) during the November to May harvest season, then switch to coal between June and October.[4][5][6]
The first of Magdalena's two coal-fired units came online in November 2012,[1][3][7] and the second began generating power in late 2014.[1][8][9] Coal for the plant was to be sourced from Colombia. [3]
Guatemala's Ministry of Energy and Mines, in its power generation expansion plan for 2020-2034, listed Ingenio Magdalena's coal-fired units as No 6 and 7.[10] The Magdalena plant was listed as having four other units (No 1, 3, 4 and 5) than ran on biomass only, or on a combination of biomass and bunker.[10] Guatemala's national energy expansion plan for 2022-2052 showed biomass and bunker as the two main fuel types at Ingenio Magdalena, listing the plant on two lines with the headings "MAGDALENA" and "BIOMASS" without specifying individual unit numbers.[11]
Recent annual reports from Ingenio Magdalena have confirmed that biomass is the primary fuel across all of its generating units. The company's 2019-2020 sustainability report stated that biofuels (bagasse, stubble, wood chips and biogas) represented 90.9% of total fuel consumed between 2018 and 2020, with coal accounting for the remaining 9.1%.[12] The company's 2021-2022 sustainability report showed biofuels providing 76.31% of energy consumed, with coal (23.23%) and bunker (0.46%) making up the remainder.[13]
Ingenio Magdalena and the Guatemalan government report differing capacity figures for generating units at the Magdalena Sugar Mill, as shown below:
| Unit | Capacity (MW) - Company Figures[10] | Capacity (MW) - Government Figures[12] |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12.5 | 12.3 |
| 3 | 16.5 | 16.6 |
| 4 | 72 | 15.6 |
| 5 | 45 | 45.6 |
| 6 | 62.4 | 57.4 |
| 7 | 61.5 | 57.3 |
Ingenio Magdalena has contracts with Guatemala’s national energy agency EEGSA (Empresa Eléctrica de Guatemala S.A.) to supply a fraction of its electrical output to the national grid.[14]The plant also sells small amounts of energy to other Central American countries via the Mercado Eléctrico Regional.[15][16]
In addition to Ingenio Magdalena, several other Guatemalan sugar mills (Pantaleón, Santa Ana, Santa Lucía, Trinidad, Palo Gordo, La Unión, Madre Tierra, San Isidro, San Diego, Concepción, El Pilar and Tululá) have also developed small-scale electrical plants fueled by the same mix of biomass and fossil fuels.[10][5][17][18][19][20] The first eight of these are included in GEM's Global Bioenergy Power Tracker; as of July 2023, all units of the latter four plants fell below the 30 MW capacity threshold required for inclusion.[2]
At the national level Guatemala continues to move away from coal towards renewables. Under the new contracts signed by national electricity agency EEGSA during Guatemala's February 2020 energy tender, plants burning coal only will account for 8% of national electricity production in 2021 (down from 18% in 2019) while plants such as Ingenio Magdalena that use a mix of coal and biomass will represent 2% of national production in 2021.[21]
Solar Expansion
In February 2023, it was reported that Ingenio Magdalena S.P. had signed a contract with MPC Energy Solutions agreeing to a long-term PPA for a 65MW solar PV plant.[22] Construction of the solar plant was expected to begin within a year of the 2023 agreement.[22]
Project Details
- Sponsor: Ingenio Magdalena (Magdalena Sugar)
- Parent company: Ingenio Magdalena (Magdalena Sugar)
- Location: La Democracia, Escuintla, Guatemala
- Coordinates: 14.121556, -90.92725 (exact)
- Status:
- Unit 4: Operating (2004)
- Unit 5: Operating (2008)
- Unit 6: Operating (2012)
- Unit 7: Operating (2014)
- Gross Capacity:
- Unit 4: 72 MW
- Unit 5: 45 MW
- Unit 6: 62 MW
- Unit 7: 62 MW
- Type:
- Coal Type:
- Coal Source: Colombia
- Source of financing:
Articles and resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Energía eléctrica". Ingenio Magdalena. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Methodology - Global Bioenergy Power Tracker". Global Energy Monitor. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Ingenio Magdalena pone en operación planta generadora en Guatemala". Revista Summa. 2012-11-21.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Guatemala: $8.9 million Investment in Coal-Based Electricity," Central America Data, Sep. 27, 2011.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Recopilación de la Información de los Simposios de Análisis de la Zafra 1997/1998 – 2014/2015 de Generación de Energía (p 7)" (PDF). Cengicaña: Centro Guatemalteco de Investigación y Capacitación de la Caña de Azúcar. December 2015.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Boletín Estadístico Generación de Energía - Recopilación de la Información del Proceso de Generación de Energía Presentada en los Simposios de Análisis de las Zafras de 1997 al 2020 (p 22)" (PDF). Cengicaña: Centro Guatemalteco de Investigación y Capacitación de la Caña de Azúcar. September 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "More Energy From Sugar Mills," Central America Data, November 21, 2012.
- ↑ "Generación eléctrica por medio de carbón gana terreno en Guatemala,", América Economía, September 25, 2013.
- ↑ "Nuestros productos: Energía,", Ingenio Magdalena website, accessed January 2017.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 "Plan de Expansión del Sistema de Generación y Transporte 2020-2034 (pp 50-51)" (PDF). Ministerio de Energía y Minas de Guatemala. 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Plan de expansión indicativo del sistema de generación 2022-2052" (PDF). Ministerio de Energía y Minas. 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Informe de Sostenibilidad 2019-2020 (pp 28, 85)" (PDF). Ingenio Magdalena S.A. July 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Informe de Sostenibilidad Magdalena 2021-2022 (p 38)" (PDF). April 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Informe Avanzado 2019" (PDF). EEGSA. March 10, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Plantas de carbón aportarán 900 MW". Prensa Libre. January 5, 2015.
- ↑ "Informe Estadístico 2019" (PDF). AMM (Administrador del Mercado Mayorista). January 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Guatemala: inauguran planta térmica de generación eléctrica,", Estrategia y Negocios, October 27, 2014.
- ↑ "Guatemala: Plantas de carbón aportarán 900 MW,", Revista Summa, January 5, 2015.
- ↑ "Ingenios dejan búnker,", Prensa Libre, August 12, 2015.
- ↑ "Ingenio Magdalena inaugura planta eléctrica en Retalhuleu,", Prensa Libre, May 20, 2016.
- ↑ "Del carbón a la energía limpia: Así son los nuevos contratos de generación de EEGSA". Prensa Libre. February 13, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 22.0 22.1 "MPC Solutions enters Guatemala with 65MW PPA with sugar producer". PV Tech. February 21, 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
