Siemens has received an order from Saudi Arabia for the supply of components for a combined cycle power plant at Ras Az Zour that has an associated seawater desalination facility.

The company will supply 12 gas turbines, 10 heat-recovery steam generators, five steam turbines and associated auxiliary and ancillary systems. The order volume for Siemens runs to more than $1 billion, Siemens said.

“This makes it one the largest orders posted by Siemens Energy in the Middle East,” it said. The purchaser is a consortium comprising Al Arrab Contracting Company of Saudi Arabia and the Chinese Sepco III Electric Power Construction Corporation. The start of commercial operations is scheduled for early 2014.

The Ras Az Zour facility will be built approximately 75 km northwest of Jubail. The 2,400-megawatt (MW) plant will supply electricity to an aluminium smelting plant and approximately 225 MiGD (million imperial gallons per day) of drinking water for the capital city Riyadh with its five million inhabitants. That amount is equivalent to approximately 1 billion litres of drinking water or around 200 litres per inhabitant.

“Ras Az Zour is one of the most important megaprojects in Saudi Arabia. It is another great example of the outstanding strength in partnership between Siemens, ACC and Sepco,” said Michael Suess, CEO of the Fossil Power Generation Division of Siemens Energy. “With this step, Siemens establishes its dominant role in the world of advanced gas power plants,” Suess added.

The Siemens scope of supply encompasses a total of 12 SGT6-5000F gas turbines, five SST6-4000 steam turbines, 17 SGen6-1000A generators, 10 heat-recovery steam generators, the associated electrical equipment and SPPA-T3000 I&C.

Attractive market
Saudi Arabia is an attractive power generation market. In the next 10 years it is anticipated that its population will increase from 28 million to 40 million. To meet the significant rise in power demand the installed capacity will have to double. Every year it will be necessary to build new power plants with a combined capacity of at least 4,000 MW. The kingdom is therefore making major investments in the expansion of capacities for power and drinking water supply. “Siemens is highly committed to supporting Saudi Arabia in meeting the energy generation demand now and in the future”, Suess said. After the Shuaibah IWPP, Jeddah III, Ghazlan and Al Khobar projects Ras Az Zour will be the fifth large-capacity 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.

High-efficiency combined-cycle power plants are part of Siemens’ environmental portfolio. In fiscal 2010, revenue from the portfolio totalled about 28 billion euros ($37.9 billion), making Siemens the world’s largest supplier of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, its products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 270 million tonnes, an amount equal to the total annual carbon dioxide emissions of the megacities of Hong Kong, London, New York, Tokyo, Delhi and Singapore.