Hans-Dieter Martin
Siemens Director for the Middle East Region

What oil is to the United States, water is to the Gulf States: Siemens has turnkeyed over 30,000 megawatts for IPP’s and utilities and installed desalination units with partners FISIA, DOOSAN and other desalination manufacturers.

THE IWPP FORMULA

The IWPP formula for infrastructure development in the Middle East was launched in Abu Dhabi, UAE at Taweelah A2 under a turnkey consortium led by Siemens Power Generation (PG). The Emirates CMS Power Company (ECPC) is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA) with 60% equity and CMS Energy with 40%. ECPC is a 710 megawatt, combined cycle facility, consisting of three Siemens V94.3A combustion turbines, three single pressure supplementary fired HRSG’s, two Siemens Industrial type 111 MW back pressure steam turbines and 4x12.5 desal units. Construction and commissioning of the facility was undertaken by a consortium led by Siemens.

Today, Al Taweelah A2 is capable of producing 710MW of power (net) and 50 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) of potable water. A contract was signed with the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company (ADWEC) to supply water and power under a 20-year agreement. ECPC entered into a $596 million facility agreement with a syndicate of international banks, headed by Barclays Bank.

THE IWPP MODEL

“The UAE is the model for the region,” Hans-Dieter Martin, Vice President Middle East Sales and Service for Siemens PG told World-Generation. “Sales have almost doubled since 1995, and we expect to have a business volume of over 30 percent from this region in the long run.” Siemens PG has 600 personnel stationed in the region out of a total 3,000 Siemens employees in the Middle East.

ISCOSA, a Siemens company headquartered in Dammam since the 1970’s has a work force of 350 to provide 24/7 service solutions to over 300 power, desalination, cement, oil and petrochemical industries throughout the Middle East who place more than 1,400 service orders annually.

NEW ORDER

“Siemens PG has supplied more than 300 gas turbines and steam turbines to the Middle East region, for turnkey and IPP solutions,” Martin said. “Two projects , Shuweihat S1 in UAE and Az Zour in Kuwait underline our strength as a full turnkey EPC supplier. The 1500 MW and 100 MIGD Shuweihat S1 power and seawater desalination plant received the MEED award for Project of the Year 2001”.

The project is scheduled to become commercial in August 2005. The first two gas turbines V94.3 have successfully undergone full load operation with both fuels. The two steam turbines are under erection as well as the desalination units.

Az Zour is a 1000 MW gas fired simple cycle gas turbine plant and will reach commercial operation during the Summer 2004. This plant is designed to be run for peak load applications but can be converted into a combined cycle plant.

NEW TENDERS

“The countries in the Middle East will increase their efforts in privatization as can be seen from the new tenders in the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia,” Martin said.

Martin also commented on the new IWPP’s entering the region. Of the 16 bidding on the Request For Proposals for Mirfa, only four have existing assets in the region.