SEWA evaluates Hamriyah expansion bids

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Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) is evaluating eight bids for the contract to expand and convert Hamriyah power plant from an open-cycle plant to a combined-cycle facility, according to Middle East Economic Digest (MEED). Media reports indicate that the expansion is expected to increase electricity production capacity from 500 Megawatts (MW) to between 1,000 MW and 1,500 MW. The bid process began towards the end of 2015.

According to MEED, the eight groups that have submitted bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract are: CalikEnerji (Turkey), Doosan (South Korea), DuroFelguera (Spain), Gama (Turkey), GE (US), OHL (Spain) / Sadelmi Power (Italy), Sepco 3 (China), Siemens (Germany) / Elsewedy Electric (Egypt).

Starting this year, Sharjah has been pumping natural gas 25 kilometres from the new Zora gas field to an onshore gas processing plant at Hamriyah Free Zone and then directly to the Hamriyah power station. The power station uses GE Energy’s gas turbine technology to produce electricity. The expansion project and conversion to a combined-cycle process is expected to add two new turbines.

Combined-cycle power plants use both a gas and a steam turbines together to produce up to 50 percent more electricity from the same fuel, compared with traditional plants. The waste heat from gas turbines is routed to steam turbines, which generate additional power.

The Hamriyah facility is Sharjah’s largest power generation and water desalination plant, planned to have a future capacity of 2500 MW of electricity and 140 million gallons of water per day. The desalination production facility was updated last year using the latest technology increasing capacity by 28 percent to 20 million gallons of desalinated water per day, with a further 25 percent increase in capacity planned for 2016.

Peak power demand in Sharjah was 2,275 MW in 2015 and power consumption is expected to rise by about 10 percent per annum. SEWA plans to address rising power demands via an innovative strategy to optimise its existing assets, plus energy conservation measures, with no new power stations planned before 2020.

Source: MEED, media, SEWA