GE has received a contract of nearly $300 million to supply five steam turbines for a major expansion of the Saudi Electricity Company's (SEC) Qurayyah Open Cycle Power Plant in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. The five steam turbines will join 15 GE F-technology gas turbines already operating at the site, converting the plant to combined-cycle operation to help Saudi Arabia meet its goals for greater power generation capacity and efficiency. When the power plant conversion is completed, scheduled for the second quarter of 2012, the site's power output will increase from 1,907 to 3,148 megawatts-a boost of 1,241 megawatts, equivalent to 10 percent of the SEC installed capacity in the Eastern Province. This will help meet the growing industrial and residential power demand in the Kingdom's eastern and central regions. “One of our central priorities is to increase the efficiency of our power production, within the context of increasing our electricity output to meet the Kingdom's growing power needs,” said Eng. Ali Saleh Al-Barrak, president and CEO of Saudi Electricity Company. “Converting the Qurayyah plant to combined-cycle operation will allow us to produce more power from the same amount of natural gas, which also helps meet our environmental requirements.” Power demand to triple Electricity demand in Saudi Arabia is expected to triple to 121,000 megawatts from 40,000 MW currently, Abdullah Al-Shehri, governor for regulatory affairs at the Electricity and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority said on Tuesday. The liquid fuel consumption is also expected to increase.
