Siemens has won a major order worth more than $1 billion for combined cycle power plant in Saudi Arabia. With an installed capacity of 4 gigawatts (GW) IPP Qurayyah will be one of the world’s largest CCPPs.
Siemens will supply key components for the plant, which will supply enough electrical energy to meet approximately one tenth of the country’s current power demand for its 28 million inhabitants.
Commissioning of the total of six blocks is scheduled for 2014.
The project consortium is led by the Saudi company ACWA Power with Samsung C&T and Mena fund as further members. Siemens received the order from Samsung C&T which also acts as EPC contractor.
In addition, a long-term service and maintenance agreement for the power plant was signed with Hajr Project Company (owned by SEC, ACWA, Samsung C&T). The order value for Siemens is over $1 billion. The plant, which will be commissioned in 2014, will be operated by Hajr as an Independent Power Producer (IPP).
“For the Qurayyah power plant in Saudi Arabia we’re supplying advanced combined cycle equipment from our global manufacturing network,” said Roland Fischer, CEO of the Fossil Power Generation Division of Siemens Energy. The company will supply the components from its recently inaugurated US gas turbine production plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, and also from its manufacturing plants in Berlin and Muelheim, Germany.
Siemens’ scope of supply encompasses a total of 12 SGT6-5000F gas turbines, 18 generators of the SGEN6-1000A series and six SST6-4000 steam turbines together with the associated electrical systems.
Siemens Energy will also provide the long-term maintenance for the major equipment in the IPP Qurayyah power plant. With its portfolio of customizable and proven energy service solutions, Siemens’ full-scope maintenance and service contract will help to ensure the long-term reliability and optimum performance of the plant, as well as provide predictable maintenance costs.
Saudi Arabia is an attractive power generation market. The country not only has the world’s largest oil reserves but also the fourth-largest natural gas deposits. In this decade it is anticipated that Saudi Arabia’s population will increase from 28 to 40 million. To meet the estimated annual rise in power demand of eight percent the installed power generation capacity will have to double within 10 years. The country’s fast-growing power demand is being increasingly met with the aid of advanced, high-efficiency combined cycle power plants.
Despite the hot climate Qurayyah IPP will have a net efficiency of 52 percent and be 14 percentage points better than typical steam power plants in Saudi Arabia. It will be one of the most efficient plants in the country, said a statement.
Only about a year ago, Siemens received an order from Saudi Arabia for the supply of key components for the 2400-megawatt Ras Al-Khair (formerly called Ras Az Zawr) combined cycle plant. The value of that order for Siemens was also over $1 billion. After the Ras Al-Khair, Shuaibah IWPP, Jeddah III, Ghazlan and Al Khobar projects, Qurayyah will be the sixth large-scale power plant built by Siemens in Saudi Arabia.
The company will also supply four gas turbines to Saudi Arabia for the Hail Extension II and Al Qurayat Expansion II projects. Last year, Siemens announced plans to invest several hundred million dollars to build a production and service centre for gas turbines in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. With the new manufacturing and service centre, Siemens is committed to gradually create jobs for highly skilled local and international employees at the new factory, it said.
