GE bags contracts worth $700 million for Saudi power plant

DUBAI: American conglomerate GE has signed agreements worth approximately $700 million to supply power generation equipment and long-term services for a new gas-fired, independent power plant in Saudi Arabia.

The company said in a statement that the project will help the Middle East's largest economy meet its growing need for residential and industrial power.

The new power plant, dubbed Riyadh PP11, will contribute 15 per cent to overall power generation capacity in Saudi Arabia's central region once it is implemented.

According to the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), Saudi Arabia's demand for reliable electricity is increasing at the rate of 8 per cent a year.

The new project, Riyadh PP11, is located at Dhuruma, about 80 kilometres West of Riyadh, and will add nearly 1,730 megawatts of power to SEC's grid.

Saudi Arabia, which has an installed generation capacity of 44,000 megawatts at present, is expected to need about 70,000 megawatts of power by the year 2020.

"As the first gas turbine independent power plant for SEC, the Riyadh PP11 project reflects our strategy to engage the private sector in the development of new power plants and to adopt innovative energy technology to increase the efficiency of our power production," said Engineer Ali Saleh al-Barrak, the president and CEO of SEC.

The plant will feature GE's high efficiency, F technology gas turbines and advanced emissions controls with Dry Low NOx (DLN) technology. It will use natural gas, a relatively clean fossil fuel, to generate power.

For Riyadh PP11, GE will supply seven Frame 7FA gas turbines and two D11 steam turbines.

In addition to providing the equipment, GE has also signed a Contractual Services Agreement (CSA) and will supply spare parts and maintenance services for the gas turbines over the next 20 years.