Saudi Review

GE wins $1bn deal from SEC

GE’s gas turbine plant in Greenville, South Carolina, USA

US industrial giant General Electric Company (GE) has won a landmark engineering and construction contract worth nearly $1 billion from Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) for its combined cycle power plant at Waad Al Shamal in the north of the kingdom.

As per the deal, GE will deliver the turnkey power plant, supplying four advanced GE 7F.05 heavy-duty gas turbines and a GE steam turbine, and featuring solar innovation technology.

The 1,390 MW combined cycle plant will provide the equivalent power needed to supply more than 500,000 Saudi homes, said GE in a statement.

Scheduled for completion in 48 months, the plant will support the phosphate mining operations in the locality, in turn driving industrialisation and job creation for Saudi nationals, it stated.

Ziyad Al Shiha, chief executive, SEC, said: “We continue to strengthen the kingdom’s power infrastructure to meet the growing demand for electricity and to accelerate all-round growth.”

“Waad Al Shamal is a strategically located power plant that has tremendous potential to energise the local economy and create jobs for Saudis through its support to the industrial sector. By awarding the contract to GE, we are further building on the long-term partnership we have with GE, with a focus on advanced technologies,” he noted.

One of the gas turbines will be assembled fully at the GE Manufacturing Technology Centre in Dammam, underlining GE’s commitment to localisation.

The remaining gas turbines will be produced at GE’s manufacturing plant in Greenville, US, and the steam turbine will be produced at its manufacturing plant in New York.