GE has secured a contract to supply 600 MW of integrated solar combined-cycle power plant for the Green Duba project in Saudi Arabia.
The project marks Saudi Arabia’s first integration of a solar field with a combined-cycle plant as well as the first introduction of condensate as a gas turbine fuel.
The plant is being developed in the Saudi Red Sea port-city of Duba, by the Saudi Electricity Company.
The project is designed to generate up to 550 MW from the combined-cycle plant whereas the solar field will supply steam for an additional 50 MW.
Mostly, the project will utilize F-class gas turbines a 7F.05 and a 7F.03 for energy generation and the concentrating solar parabolic trough will be an enhanced addition.
The generated power is enough to supply for around 600,000 homes in the region every year.
In addition to gas turbines, GE will also supply steam turbine; generators; heat recovery steam generators (HRSG); condenser; boiler feed pumps; Mark VIe distributed control system according to the agreement.
Of late, the first four 7F.05 gas turbines in the field achieved full commercial baseload operation at SEC Power Plant (PP) 12 in Riyadh.
It is expected that all eight units at PP12 will be operating in combined cycle adding 2,000 MW by early 2015.
Green Duba project selected the particular region for developing solar energy infrastructure as it was already recognized as an area with limited grid access.
In Saudi Arabia, GE takes care of nearly half of the power supply with over 500 gas turbines installed across the Kingdom.
Sabeena Wahid
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