YANBU – In another milestone in the Kingdom's desalination sector, Madinah Emir Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Majed opened the world's largest multi-effect desalination (MED) plant in Yanbu on Wednesday. He also patronized the signing of contracts for building the third phase of the Yanbu – Madinah desalination and electricity generation project. The ambitious project is estimated to cost SR16 billion, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The ceremony, held at the floating desalination plant, was also attended by Minister of Water and Electricity Abdullah Al-Hussein, who is also chairman of the board of Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), Abdul Rahman Bin Muhammad Al-Ibrahim, governor of SWCC and other senior officials. Speaking on the occasion, Al-Ibrahim said that the third phase of the desalination plant would have the export capacity of 550,000 cubic meters of water daily and 2500 megawatts of electricity. Of this, 1,850 megawatts will go to the Saudi Electricity Company and Marafiq Company would take advantage of the remaining 650 megawatts. Referring to the remarkable achievements made by the Kingdom in the desalination sector, he said that Saudi Arabia has become the largest producer of desalinated water in the world with a stake of 18 percent of the total global production. “By taking advantage of the MED technology, we can rationalize use of fuel by 40 percent and extending life span of the plant up to 40 years,” he said. The emir witnessed a video presentation of the barge that operates as a floating desalination plant with a production capacity of 50,000 cubic meters of water and another presentation about the Yanbu –Madinah desalination and electricity plant. Prince Abdul Aziz also opened the MED plant, which has the productive capacity of 15 million gallons per day. Minister Abdullah Al-Hussein signed a series of contracts for designing, supplying and implementation of Yanbu 3 transformer with a capacity of 380 KV, costing SR716 million; building third phase of the Yanbu desalination and electricity generation plant (Group D – desalination plant) with a cost of SR3.8 billion; and the third phase of the Yanbu desalination and electricity generation project (Group B – electricity plant) with a cost of over SR11.23 billion. — SG/SPA
