Dewa awards Siemens, Elsewedy $300m contract to develop power station

The project will add 815MW to the Al Ameer facility by 2020

Dewa's managing director and chief executive Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer says the utility plans to spend Dh81bn in the next five years. Reem Mohammed / The National

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) awarded a Dhs1.1bn ($300m) contract for the fourth phase of the H station at Al Aweer to a consortium of Germany’s Siemens and Egyptian utilities developer Elsewedy, raising the total installed capacity of the facility to 2,811MW,

“The turbines are expected to be operational in phases starting from February 29, 2020 and ending on 30 April 2020,” Dewa managing director and chief executive Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer said in a statement on Wednesday.

The project would test, supply and commission three gas turbines with a total capacity of 815MW, he added.

Dubai, which generates 98 per cent of its electricity from natural gas has over four Gigawatts of power projects in the pipeline, with 10.2GW of total production capacity for electricity and 470 million Imperial gallons per day of desalinated water, according to Dewa.

Egyptian developer Elsewedy would carry out the construction works associated with the engineering, procurement and construction contract, with Siemens set to deliver “three F-class turbines with 60 per cent efficiency” as well as the electricity generator to see the project through completion by 2020, Dietmar Siersdorfer Siemens’ regional chief executive said in an interview.

“When this power station is completed, we have a share of around 70pc of the total power generation in Dubai with Siemens technology,” he added.

Last June, Dewa signed a 12-year operating plant service agreement worth Dhs1.7bn with the German firm that included maintenance works and gas-turbine rehabilitation for the Al Aweer plant as well as for the second phase of the K-station at Jebel Ali power and desalination facility.

Siemens is also currently undertaking a 700MW expansion of the M-station in Jebel Ali, which upon completion would reach a total installed capacity for 2.885MW. The facility was on schedule for completion by 2018, according to a Siemens spokeswoman.

In November The National reported Siemens, Europe's largest industrial conglomerate, created a global division catering to airports, cargo and logistics in Dubai in conjunction with a digital platform, or industrial internet of things, near the Dubai Expo 2020 site. The new unit will be operational from the first quarter of 2018.