Hera Diesel Power Plant
power station in Dili, East Timor
Hera Diesel Power Plant is a 119 MW oil-fired generating station on the coast at Hera, about 15 km east of Dili in Timor-Leste. Built under the 2008 National Electricity Project and owned by state utility EDTL, it forms one half of the country's twin-site diesel base load system together with the Betano plant, supplying the bulk of Timor-Leste's grid power and acting as a strategic reserve while policymakers explore gas conversion and expanded renewables.
Development and commissioning
Construction began in February 2009 after the government selected Hera as the northern hub of its nation-wide electrification programme. Seven generator sets arrived in September 2011, and commercial operation started early in 2012, making Hera the first utility-scale source of baseload power for the northern grid. A 29 September 2017 agreement appointed Wärtsilä to ensure long-term energy availability and undertake full operations and maintenance (O&M).
Plant configuration and operations
The station uses seven Wärtsilä 18V46 medium-speed reciprocating engines that can run on diesel or heavy fuel oil, giving a net capacity of 119.5 MW and exporting power through a 150 kV switch-yard to the national transmission ring. Together with the 136 MW Betano plant, Hera supplies more than 90 percent of utility electricity and consumes roughly three-quarters of Timor-Leste's imported petroleum. Generation costs in 2021 averaged US$0.35–0.45 per kWh—two to three times the regulated tariff—so the fleet operates with substantial government subsidy. An Asian Development Bank study presented in 2023 noted that all engines are technically convertible to natural gas and that EDTL is assessing this option to curb fuel costs and emissions. Wärtsilä continues to hold the O&M contract, renewed in July 2012.
The public source identifies “Hera Diesel Power Plant” as power station in Dili, East Timor. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hera, Diesel and Power.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q123913790. Authority coordinates are -8.540, 125.690. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hera Diesel Power Plant” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.