Siemens Co to convert Al-Zour plant in Kuwait to combined power cycle

Expansion to hike plant’s capacity

KUWAIT CITY, April 20: With the aim of transforming South Al-Zour 3 open power plant into an efficient combined cycle power plant, Siemens Company will be delivering an industrial steam turbine package. This expansion will increase the total installed capacity of the plant by 263MW without using any additional gas.

According to a press release issued by Siemens AG, the company had supplied a total of eight SGT5-2000E gas turbines and two SST5-4000 steam turbines for this project, and its components were installed in the first and second stages of the power plant.

The operation of this combined cycle power plant is expected to be launched in mid-2019.

Siemens’ customer is the Chinese EPC contractor SEPCOIII, which has already used Siemens’ steam turbine technology for three solar thermal power plants in Morocco. The Noor II project also operates with a combination of the SST-800 and SST-500.

Head of Procurement in SEPCOIII Wang Jianming said, “Siemens has supported us strongly in winning this important contract. We are confident that this project will be a success story for SEPCOIII and all involved parties”.

In 2015, South Al-Zour 3 began operating as an open cycle power plant with two SGT5-4000F gas turbines. Siemens is now supplying an SST-800 steam turbine (high pressure) combined with an SST500 steam turbine (low pressure) and a SGen1200A generator for this stage. After the steam turbine expansion, the hot waste gases of the gas turbines will be used to produce steam which will feed the turbo set. This will increase the plant’s total capacity by 263 MW without any additional gas consumption and will boost its efficiency significantly.

Head of Sales for the Middle East & North Africa region at Siemens Power and Gas, Jeffrey Dunlap said, “With our industrial steam turbine, we have developed a costeffective and highly efficient solution for expanding the power plant. With more than 263MW, the additional capacity is outstanding for a non-reheat process. The project highlights the flexibility and individuality of these steam turbine expansions. With our wide range of industrial and utility steam turbine portfolio, we will always find the right match to meet the individual steam tailing project targets”.