Tognum supplies emergency gensets to Swiss nuclear power plant Beznau

• Order placed for four mtu Onsite Energy emergency gensets
• Order volume worth around 25 million euros
• Purchaser is Westinghouse Electric Germany

Friedrichshafen, 24 February 2011. The specialist for propulsion and power solutions Tognum has won a major order to supply emergency gensets to Beznau, the nuclear power plant in service for some forty years in the Swiss canton of Aargau. The order recently placed by nuclear services provider Westinghouse Electric Germany is worth around 25 million euros. Two mtu Onsite Energy gensets each are to be installed in blocks I and II of the nuclear power plant, where they will go into service as autonomous systems from 2014.
"Tognum’s emergency gensets make an important contribution to the safety of nuclear power plants," explained Christof von Branconi, member of the Tognum Executive Board and responsible for the Onsite Energy & Components business unit. The units satisfy the strict requirements of the German Nuclear Safety Standards Commission (KTA) for operation of standby systems in nuclear power plants. Their suitability for the application was verified in performance tests carried out by Germanischer Lloyd.
The four emergency gensets are based on mtu 12V 956 TB33 engines and deliver a total output of 18,000 kVA. That would be sufficient to cover the power requirements of a small German town of around 15,000 inhabitants. In the Beznau nuclear power plant, the gensets will be used to provide the cooling water pumps with power in the shortest possible time if a power outage occurs.
mtu and the operator of the Beznau nuclear power plant have been business partners for over 20 years. As far back as 1990, MTU Friedrichshafen, today a subsidiary of Tognum, supplied its first two standby gensets destined for Beznau, where in future they are to remain at the ready in case of an emergency. When further standby plants were planned, the operator made a point of ordering them from mtu Onsite Energy.