Vital ongoing power projects in the Gulf, including the first large-scale independent power project (IPP) to be undertaken in Saudi Arabia by the private sector, have the stamp of GE expertise.

As well as working on that project, implemented for Saudi Aramco, GE is involved with the Umm Al Nar power and water plant in Abu Dhabi.
The company also recently signed a $3.7 million deal to supply Manama Textile Mills, Bahrain, with four gas engines through GE Jenbacher. Also in Bahrain, it is one of the consortium partners of a $1.5 billion petrochemical project initiated by Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain. 
In another recent contract, GE will supply distributed control systems (DCS) for Saudi Electric Company.
GE will supply eight gas turbines to four Saudi Aramco co-generation plants, which are to be developed, owned and operated by International Power and Saudi Oger.
 A GE official said the company would be supplying gas turbines in the F Class to support conventional generators. The turbines are being manufactured at GE’s Greenville (US) plant at a cost of $165 million.  
The total capacity of the plants will be 1,075 MW and 4.4 million lb/h of steam. They are located in Ras Tanura (150 MW and 645,000 lb/h steam) and at Ju’aymah, Shedgum and Uthmaniyah (each 308 MW and 1,250,000lb/h steam). All the plants are located in Saudi Arabia’s eastern region. Saudi Aramco will supply the natural gas and will use the power and steam generated for its processing plants.
 The project, one of a large number of electric power and seawater desalination projects being planned for Saudi Arabia, will be completed in a phased manner between March 2006 and December 2006.
Ras Tanura is where Saudi Aramco has one of its five domestic refineries.  It was upgraded in 1998 from a hydroskimming refinery to a full conversion refinery, at a cost of over $1.3 billion, as part of the kingdom’s long-term strategy for making its five wholly owned refineries “pacesetter” refineries by the year 2006.
 International Power will own 60 per cent of the project company that is developing the plants and which will own and operate the plants. Saudi Oger, a large Saudi-based construction and telecommunications company, will hold the remaining 40 per cent stake. The project company will be responsible for the construction, ownership and operation / maintenance of the cogeneration plants. The combined facilities will be the largest privately owned power generation project in Saudi Arabia.
GE was granted the turbines order by the project’s engineering, procurement and construction contractor Mitsui which has a 50-billion yen ($474 million) contract. Mitsui is subcontracting with Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co, Ltd.  Sargent & Lundy LLC is providing technical advisory services during implementation of the project.
For the Umm Al Nar power and water plant, GE Power Systems signed a contractual service agreement (CSA) with ITM Operation and Maintenance Company Limited (ITM O&M Co Ltd).  Valued at more than $200 million, the agreement calls for GE to provide planned maintenance services for a period of up to 23 years for five GE Frame 9FA gas turbines it will be supplying for the Umm Al Nar site.
Jointly owned by International Power PLC and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), ITM O&M Co Ltd has been commissioned to operate and maintain the Umm Al Nar power plant, which will begin commercial operation in 2005. It is the first facility in the Gulf region to use GE’s F technology gas turbines.
GE will provide performance guarantees regarding output, heat rate and planned outage duration for the Frame 9FA gas turbines throughout the term of the contract.
Explaining the CSA programme, a GE spokesman said the company identified and shared common goals with its customers to optimise plant availability and overall plant performance and output, and promote maximum efficiency of the machines.
The company has invested in technology to not only meet but also surpass expected maintenance levels, giving its customers higher availability, output and efficiency.
“Because we routinely maintain thousands of turbines, our service teams can adopt procedures that have been successful elsewhere while our advanced monitoring and diagnostics tools identify trends and help reduce the risk of unplanned maintenance,” the spokesman said.
GE says the benefits of the Umm Al Nar maintenance agreement were that it could project its maintenance costs with a high degree of accuracy while also minimising the risk associated with the availability and parts life of the equipment installed
The service agreement enables ITM O&M Co Ltd to take advantage of GE’s innovative technology and broad experience in turbine technology, sophisticated maintenance procedures, and worldwide service network. The agreement provides a maintenance programme customised to suit individual needs. In addition, the programme includes all service, labour, parts, and repairs for planned and unplanned maintenance, along with performance guarantees tailored to the plant.
The Umm Al Nar power and water project, the largest of its kind in the Middle East with a total project cost of approximately $2.1 billion, was acquired from Abu Dhabi Electricity and Water Authority (Adwea). The existing plant is being expanded, increasing its power generation capacity from 850 to 1,550 MW, in addition to its desalination capacity.
In the agreement with Manama Textile Mills, GE’s gas engines will be an important input for the textile manufacturer’s new processing plant. The gas engines will provide 6 MW of electricity and meet about 50 per cent of the company’s power requirements.
The plant will convert raw fabric into bedsheet products. Manama Textile Mills is investing $40 million in the project whose capacity will be three million meters of fabric per month or alternatively 500,000 sheet sets. The company, which has planned two other projects for the near future, started in 1995 with a  $10 million investment. It has now grown to $140 million and will touch $160 million by the end of 2007.  It contains the largest investment for any totally private company in Bahrain.
The combined Bahrain petrochemical and power and water generation project, in which GE Energy is a consortium partner, is designed to produce seven key petrochemicals plus power of capacity 1,000 MW per hour and 30 million gallons of water per day. The chemicals it will be producing include ethylene dichloride, caustic soda, propane, butane, gasoline stream, hydrogen and sulphur.
GE Energy is a consortium partner along with Weir International, Stone & Webster, Uhde GmbH and Chicago Bridge and Iron Company. KHL-Bahrain is the consortium leader.
In the DCS contract in Saudi Arabia, the Mark Vle DCS will be installed at three Saudi Electric Company power plants for balance of plant controls, communicating with Siemens V84 gas turbines at the Asir and Bisha sites and with new GE frame gas turbines at the Jizan location.
The Mark Vle DCS will control complete power plant functions digitally and seamlessly linking the entire power plant to multiple, easy-to-use operator-interface situations for plant operations, data acquisition and performance analysis.
The Mark Vle DCS utilises GE Energy’s powerful proprietary software application, ToolboxSTa, enabling operators to configure and programme all software functions from one station. The advances speed and flexibility of the Mark Vle deliver protection and monitoring in a single control system with improved availability and reduced maintenance, spare parts and training costs.
“The Mark Vle was developed from customer requests to provide a control system that could meet the advanced performance   requirements of modern power plants with the flexibility needed for an ever-changing fleet,” said Ricardo Artigas, president, energy services, GE Energy. “This reflects the ongoing commitment of GE Energy to deliver innovative technology that exceeds our customers’ return on investment expectations.”