GE, which has an 80-year-long energy partnership in Saudi Arabia, has reaffirmed its commitment to Saudi development through providing tailored solutions and local manufacturing and increasing delivery of expertise and training.

 “The company continues to work closely with private and public sector customers – sharing our technological capabilities and financial strength with their local know-how. We are making sure that we truly understand the needs of the country, to support the kingdom towards the fulfillment of Vision 2020,” a GE spokesman said.

GE Power and Water has more than 800 staff, three technology centres, three offices and more than 500 turbines generating more than 20 gigawatts, which amounts to around 50 per cent of the country’s electricity. The GE segment also produces more than 180 million litres of clean water daily to even the remotest corners of the kingdom.

GE opened in Dammam 2011 a manufacturing technology centre, one of the largest and most sophisticated of GE’s energy technology centres. Strategically located to better serve its customers in the kingdom, the Middle East and the world, the centre underscores its full support of the kingdom’s Saudisation goals and its transition to a knowledge-based economy.

Phase 2 of the centre, now under construction, will double the size of the current facility with five new buildings, four of which will become operational by 2014. Activities in the massive 219,000-square-foot expansion will include state-of-the-art manufacturing for six unique, sophisticated gas turbine components, plus engineering, assembly and testing for oil flow cells and Bently Nevada control solutions. The kingdom’s only high-speed balancing facility for generator rotors will be housed here, along with a new GE Repair Development Centre – one of only five in the world. The centre is where researchers, engineers and skilled technologists will focus on finding new repairs technology to serve regional customers in the power, water, and oil and gas industries.

Building on the successful graduation of the pioneering class of the GE Joint Technical Programme (GE JTP) with Saudi’s premier institution, the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC), GE and TVTC inked a five-year MoU to expand the GE JTP. The MoU paves the way for the expansion of the existing GE JTP curriculum, which includes training and testing of key areas of the repair of gas turbines, electrical motors and generators.

Aiming to train up to 100 graduates annually, the GE JTP is designed to ensure that graduates of the programme will obtain the optimal qualifications to support the future growth of the kingdom’s national economy. In addition to its programmes with King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, GE has a contract with the Human Resources Development Fund to support new graduates for up to three years.

The PP11 plant at Dhuruma in the Saudi Centrel Region

“Today GE power generation technology is installed in nearly 40 Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) sites, generating nearly half of the kingdom’s electricity. From delivering the first turbine to Saudi’s first refinery, there are more than 110 GE turbines and nearly 100 GE centrifugal compressors supporting the kingdom’s oil and gas sector. In the last three years, GE announced over $2 billion in projects in Saudi Arabia to support the kingdom’s growing energy needs,” the spokesman said.

Some examples of GE’s involvement in Saudi energy infrastructure:

• Marafiq Integrated Water and Power Plant (IWPP). Leading the consortium for Marafiq IWPP, GE delivers advanced power generation technology and services to the world’s largest independent water and power plant, located in Jubail Industrial City. Recognising the key role GE Energy is playing in the development of this milestone project, GE received the inaugural Marafiq award for sustainability.

• SEC Riyadh PP9. SEC’s Riyadh PP9 is Saudi Arabia’s and the region’s largest power plant. It is also Saudi Arabia’s first non-coastal combined cycle power plant. Located 54 km east of Riyadh, PP9 generates 4,000 megawatts with 60 GE turbines. This constitutes 35 per cent of SEC’s power generation capacity in the Central Region.

• SEC Riyadh PP10. SEC’s Riyadh PP10 site, which just entered commercial operation, will add about 2,000 MW to Saudi Arabia’s grid to support the country’s summer peak electricity demand and increase power capacity in SEC’s Central Operation Area by 20 per cent. GE’s on-time delivery of the over 30 Frame 7EA gas turbines for the Riyadh PP10 site enabled SEC to provide reliable electricity for the Riyadh Central grid during the summer months. GE’s Mark VIe integrated control system (ICS) is also installed at PP10 to improve overall plant reliability and deliver operational and maintenance efficiency over the generating life of the power plant. The Riyadh PP10 site is currently the biggest installation worldwide for GE’s Mark VIe ICS.

• GE Saudi delivered and installed power generation products for the first Independent Power Plant (IPP) PP11, which was delivered ahead of scheduled time and has seven GE 7FA high-efficiency gas turbines and two GE D11 steam turbines that support it. PP11, located at Dhuruma, about 80 km west of the Saudi capital city of Riyadh, added 1,730 megawatts of power to SEC’s grid.

• Saudi Aramco Shaybah Expansion. Shaybah, Saudi Aramco’s most remote oil field, is located in the southeastern section of the kingdom. In order to enhance oil production and the gas-oil ratio, Saudi Aramco selected GE for agreements totaling nearly $500 million to supply a broad range of equipment and services for an expansion of the Shaybah gas-oil processing facilities. To generate the additional 729 megawatts of power, GE is supplying 11 gas turbine-generator units, 44 compressors, motors and services. Since supplying the first gas turbine to Saudi Arabia’s first refinery in 1942, GE has, to date, delivered more than 110 gas turbines and nearly 100 centrifugal compressors to Saudi Aramco. GE’s suite of integrated and tailored high-technology solutions and services and its ability to deliver under a compressed timeline were key to Saudi Aramco’s selection of the company for this extensive project.