A new 1200 MWe combined cyle power plant using three GE 9FB gas turbines will help meet the rapidly growing energy needs of eastern Algeria when it enters service at the end of 2011.
Algerian electric company Shariket Karhaba Koudiet Eddraouch Spa, owned by Sonelgaz and Sonatrach, has awarded a contract to GE and its consortium partner, Iberdrola Ingenieria y Construccion (Iberinco), for the construction of the Koudiet Eddraouch power plant in El-Tarf province, 700 km east of Algiers. Iberinco was also involved in the 9FB lead project, at Arcos in Spain.
GE’s Algerian contract, which includes HRSGs, steam turbines and generators, is valued at about r635 million (nearly US$1B), while that of Iberinco is put at r835 million. In addition GE is also in the process of signing a contractual services agreement to provide maintenance and parts over 20 years.
The capacity of the new plant corresponds to about 18% of the current installed capacity in Algeria, where electricity demand is growing at over 7%/y.
The new FB gas turbines will be manufactured at GE’s Belfort facility. The HRSGs will be manufactured by Doosan.
As well as north Africa, the 9FB is also making in-roads into eastern Europe, with the recent announcement that a 9FB-based 860 MWe combined cycle plant is to be built at the Brazi refinery of Petrom – the first application of the 9FB in Romania. GE will build the plant, about 60 km from Bucharest, in consortium with Metka of Greece.
The Brazi project is Romania’s largest investment in the power generation sector since the Cernavoda 2 nuclear project, which began in 1989. It also marks the entry of Petrom and its parent company, OMV, into the power generation industry. “This plant will help us achieve our goal to produce approximately eight to nine percent of the country’s electricity by 2012,” said Gerald Kappes, a member of Petrom’s Executive Board.
About 20% of the plant’s electricity will be used by Petrom for its own operations, with the remainder sold on the Romanian power grid.
Construction start is planned for early in 2009 and the plant is expected to be connected to the grid in the second half of 2011. With a thermal efficiency of more than 57%, the facility plans to be among the most efficient in Eastern Europe.
GE’s scope includes two 9FB gas turbines, a GE 209D steam turbine, three hydrogen-cooled generators, two HRSGs and a Mark VIe integrated control system.
The 9FB lead plant, Arcos III, in Spain, went commercial in 2006. As well as Spain, Algeria and Romania, other 9FB project locations include Italy, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Portugal, Sweden, UK, France and Russia (OGK5).