High-Efficiency combined cycle power plants are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio.

The Shuaibah IWPP steam power plant with integrated seawater desalination facility in Saudi Arabia has started commercial operation, announced Siemens Energy. The company built the power plant as a turnkey project together with its consortium partner, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Company for Shuaibah Water and Electricity Company (SWEC).

The overall plant has an installed capacity of 900 megawatts (MW). According to Siemens Energy, the seawater desalination plant, supplied by Doosan, will produce approximately 880,000 m3 of drinking water daily for the cities of Mecca, Jeddah, Taif and Al Baha.

In addition to turnkey erection of the plant, the Siemens scope of supply also encompassed three backpressure steam turbinegenerators, each rated at 400 MW, the associated electrical equipment and an SPPA-T3000 instrumentation and control system. The power plant is also equipped with an advanced flue-gas cleaning plants, said Siemens Energy, which was supported by the regional entity, Siemens Ltd Saudi Arabia, in its implementation of the crude oil-fired power plant.

According to Siemens Energy, by 2024, it is anticipated that the population of Saudi Arabia will have almost doubled to 40 million. New power plants, with a combined capacity of at least 3,000 MW, will be required annually to meet the pronounced increase in power demand. The Kingdom is, therefore, making significant investments in the expansion of capacities for power and drinking water supply. After Jeddah III, Ghazlan and Al Khobar, Shuaibah is the fourth large-capacity steam power plant built by Siemens in Saudi Arabia.