Full grid code campaign on a 24-unit Wärtsilä combustion engine plant in the desert north of Baja California — every test, all three levels, COD achieved on schedule.
CCI Mexicali Oriente is a 440 MW combustion-engine power plant in the desert north of Baja California. The plant is built around 24 Wärtsilä reciprocating engines rated 18 MW each, configured for grid-following baseload and peaking operation on the Sistema Eléctrico de Baja California — the regional grid synchronously connected to the US WECC network and serving the Baja California peninsula.
Mexicali Oriente entered commercial operation under a recurring partnership between Wärtsilä's commissioning organization and Grid Code Engineering. We delivered the complete CENACE (Mexican Grid Operator) required grid code testing program — every test the Mexican Código de Red 2.0 demands of a Type D combustion-engine plant on the Sistema Baja California — across all three operational levels.
The scope covered every test the applicable code requires for a Type D combustion-engine plant connected at 230 kV, executed across three levels — generator terminals (Level 01), interconnection point (Level 02), and operational testing (Level 03).
Voltage and frequency regulation under both no-load and load conditions, captured individually for each of the 24 engines. Non-negotiable on a multi-unit plant: each engine has to demonstrate its own AVR and governor behavior independently before the plant can be evaluated as a whole.
Voltage and frequency regulation at the POI, primary frequency response, electrical-protection coordination, and the plant's behavior at the 230 kV interconnection bus.
Performance, reliability, and demonstration of startup and shutdown sequences across the 24-unit fleet.
The dominant challenge was simply the scale of the per-unit work. A 24-engine plant means 24 separate Level 01 test campaigns, each with its own AVR step responses, no-load and loaded governor traverses, and individual protective-element verification — sequenced in coordination with the plant operator's commissioning schedule and Wärtsilä's startup engineers.
Field campaigns at this density are won or lost on instrumentation discipline: every engine gets the same calibrated probes, the same recorder configuration, the same test procedure, applied with the same rigor.
The plant operates in one of Mexico's hottest ambient environments, with summer temperatures regularly exceeding 45 °C. Test work scheduled around the operational envelope — and around the operator's contractual dispatch windows — required tight coordination with CENACE for grid-level test approvals.
The plant achieved commercial operation with CENACE acceptance. The grid code dossier was filed via SAPPSE and approved.
CCI Mexicali Oriente is now an operating asset on the Baja California grid; the sister plant in the same Wärtsilä portfolio (CCI Parque Industrial, 240 MW) was subsequently delivered under the same recurring partnership.
Between the two plants, over 500 tests were conducted — in the engines, the plant and the operation.
Tell us about your facility, OEM, and target jurisdiction. We come back within two business days.