Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has inaugurated the AED1.527bn ($415.7m) M-Station Extension project in the outskirts of Dubai in the UAE.

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Image: Inauguration ceremony of M-Station Extension project. Photo: courtesy of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority.

The M-Station Extension project was undertaken by the company to add two new generating units with a combined capacity of 700MW to lift the capacity of the M-Station in the Jebel Ali town to 2.885GW and 140 million gallons of desalinated water per day.

The expansion project saw the introduction of two dual-fuel gas turbine generators, each having a capacity of 263.5MW, along with two waste heat-recovery boilers for steam generation, and a 173MW back pressure steam turbine supplied by Siemens.

Siemens Middle East and UAE CEO Dietmar Siersdorfer said: “The completion of the Jebel Ali M-Station expansion marks another milestone in the long history of Siemens and DEWA as strategic partners. It’s a testament to what we can achieve with innovation and technology to support society and economic growth in the UAE.”

According to DEWA, the extension’s design has a fuel efficiency of 90% which has boosted the overall fuel efficiency of the facility from 82.4% to 85.8%.

Prior to the extension, M-Station had a capacity of 2.185GW from six Siemens F-model gas turbines, each of 255MW capacity, six Doosan Waste-Heat Recovery Boilers for steam generation and three Alstom steam turbines with each having a capacity of 218MW.

The power and water desalination plant also includes 16 fuel-oil storage tanks, each having a capacity of 20,000m3 and totaling 320,000m3 of fuel-oil storage.

The facility produces 140 million gallons per day (MIGD) from eight Fisia desalination units. It deploys Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) distillation technology, each having a capacity of 17.5 MIGD and two dual-fuel-fired auxiliary boilers.

DEWA president Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum said: “The extension to the M-Station supports the UAE’s strategy to adopt innovation and shape the future. We made sure that we followed world-class standards in various stages of this project’s implementation, as well as world-class operational technologies, state-of-the-art smart solutions, and information technology systems.”

The total investment in M-Station has reached AED11.7bn ($3.17bn) till date. The facility, which was commissioned in 2013 with an investment of around AED10bn ($2.7bn), has been powering nearly one million homes in Dubai even before its expansion.