Will add 1,680 megawatts of power to the country’s grid

GE has announced that it has been selected to provide gas turbine technology and services for four Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) power plant expansions that will support Saudi Arabia in meeting its growing power needs, especially during the hot summer months when electricity demand is at its peak. The total value of the agreements with GE is expected to be more than US$500 million, and the power plant expansions are expected to add over a hundred new local jobs, the announcement said.

GE Energy has revealed that the four SEC power plant expansions will add 1,680 megawatts of power to the Saudi grid – more than half of SEC’s planned annual increase of 3,000 megawatts. The Kingdom’s electricity demand has been reportedly growing at the rate of about six per cent per year.

The company said that the contracts bring its orders for SEC projects in the last two years to over US$2 billion. It also claimed that to date, its power generation technology and services are supporting the generation of nearly half of the Kingdom’s installed capacity.

According to the announcement, the new power plant expansion projects that GE will be supplying to include: 600-megawatt expansion of the SEC power plant in Qurayyah, 480-megawatt expansion of the PP-10 power plant 40 kilometres south of Riyadh city, 480-megawatt SEC power plant expansion at Qassim, 350 kilometres north of Riyadh and 120-megawatt expansion of the SEC power facility near Tabouk.

In addition to supplying power generation technology, GE said that it will provide all four plant expansions with technical advisory services, performance testing as well as giving training for SEC technical teams to support them in the operation of the plants.

Against the backdrop of bagging the project, Ali Saleh Al Barrak, President and CEO, SEC, said: “These fast-tracked plant expansions are designed to meet peak summer demands. Our customers expect reliability, and over the years GE has built a reputation we can count on and trust. A stellar history of on-time delivery and well-proven gas turbine technology has made our 40-year relationship with GE a success story, with more than 400 GE turbines that are supporting close to 40 SEC projects around the Kingdom.”

Joseph Anis, GE Energy’s President and CEO for the Middle East, added, “In Saudi Arabia and around the Middle East, we continue to deliver energy technology solutions that have helped us earn the trust of our customers.