John Rice, Vice Chairman of GE and president & CEO of GE Global Growth and Operations;, receives the SWPF Award for Innovation, presented by Riyadh Governor Prince Turki Bin Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Abdullah Al-Hussayen, Water and Electricity Minister, at the Saudi Water & Power Forum 2015 in Riyadh. RIYADH — Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and GE received the Saudi Water & Power Forum (SWPF) Award for innovation for their operations at SEC's Power Plant (PP) 12 in Riyadh. John Rice, Vice Chairman of GE and president & CEO of GE Global Growth and Operations; and Eng. Ziyad Alshiha, CEO of SEC, received the award from Riyadh Governor Prince Turki Bin Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Excellency Abdullah Al-Hussayen, Water and Electricity Minister, at the SWPF 2015 being held at Al-Faisaliyah Hotel in Riyadh. Presented annually, the SWPF Award for Innovation celebrates excellence and outstanding achievements in the industry and rewards organizations recognized by their industry peers for being the most innovative in the Saudi power and/or water sectors. GE has introduced its advanced solutions at SEC's combined-cycle PP12. The plant is a strong example of the focus of SEC in adopting cutting edge technologies, and highlights its commitment to innovation. GE has eight highly-efficient and flexible GE 7F.05 gas turbines in the field at PP12. All eight units are expected to reach full commercial baseload operation at PP12 early this year and will be operating in combined cycle and add nearly 2,000 megawatt, enough power for approximately 2 million homes, to support SEC in meeting its future electricity demands. PP12 is part of Saudi Arabia's plans to add 33 gigawatt of power generation capacity by 2020. Fuel flexibility is a significant advantage of the 7F.05 turbines, which can operate on natural gas, distillate fuel or Arabian Super Light crude. GE's F-class gas turbines are the first to offer customers the ability to operate on crude oil. Today, GE assists in the generation of more than half of the Kingdom's power supply and has over 500 gas turbines installed in the Kingdom. — SG
