Saudi Arabia: Siemens has announced that it will supply five F-class gas turbines to the Fadhili Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant in Saudi Arabia. With a generating capacity of 1,200 megawatts, the plant, the announcement said, will supply electricity and process steam to a new natural gas extraction plant in Fadhili, which is located around 120 kilometres northwest of Dammam. The turbines will be produced at the Siemens Dammam Energy Hub (SDEH).

The project is led by Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) partner with whom Siemens, the announcement informed, has inked the supply agreement. Furthermore, Siemens and Kahrabel, an affiliate of the ENGIE Group, signed the 16-year long-term service contract for the gas turbines. The Fadhili CHP plant, the announcement added, is jointly owned by Saudi Electricity Company (30%), Saudi Aramco Power Holding Company (30%) and the developer (40%), which is an ENGIE affiliate.

In addition to the turbines, the announcement revealed that Siemens’ scope of supply, includes five generators and a control system, all of which will be commissioned on site. The long-term service agreement covers maintenance services for the turbines, including advanced power diagnostics services, which is part of the company’s “Digital Services for Energy” portfolio. The company said that the new power plant will largely be fired with so-called K-gas, a natural gas which has a relatively low calorific value. Siemens and Saudi Aramco have been jointly testing the suitability of the F-class gas turbine for this special type of fuel.

The Fadhili CHP project, the company mentioned, is scheduled for completion by the end of 2019, and will play a key role in expanding gas production to meet the rapidly growing domestic energy demand. Together with two other new gas extraction plants, Fadhili, the company added, will produce more than five billion standard cubic feet per day of “non-associated gas,” a natural gas which is extracted independently of oil.

“This is a great milestone for Saudi Arabia and Siemens,” said Jeffrey Dunlap, Siemens’ Senior Vice President for Power Generation Sales in the MENA region. “The project leverages even more opportunities to drive the industrialization of the Kingdom in line with Vision 2030. Thanks to our comprehensive service package, the new power plant will reliably supply the gas extraction plant with electricity and process steam for a long time. With the right technological solutions, Siemens continues to demonstrate its local commitment to the Kingdom, its partners and the Saudi society.”