German powerhouse Siemens has bagged a long-term service contract for the Umm Al Houl combined cycle power plant near Doha in Qatar and clinched a Bahrain order to supply three substations and upgrade the energy infrastructure of the kingdom.

Siemens also announced it has shipped its first Industrial Trent 60 gas turbine generator package from a US facility to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco)’s Satah Al Razboot (SARB) offshore oil field project on Zirku Island.

The Qatar order awarded by Umm Al Houl Power, a joint venture between Qatar Electricity and Water Company, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Foundation and KI Energy, a consortium of Mitsubishi Corpn and Tepco & Fuel Power, Inc, has a 25-year duration and covers the plant’s six SGT5-4000F gas turbines, four SST5-4000 steam turbines and 10 SGen5-1200A generators including instrumentation and controls service. 

Tim Holt, CEO, Siemens Power Generation Services, Power and Gas, said the agreement would boost efficiency, reliability and availability throughout its entire lifecycle. 

Under the Bahrain order, Siemens will supply, install and commission three 400/220 kV substations, including control and protection systems and cable re-routing. Siemens will introduce an upgraded 400 kV network, which will form a reliable and stable backbone for the country’s electricity transmission grid.

The contract was awarded to Siemens by the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA). The substations are to be erected in Hidd, Riffa and Umm Al Hassan and completed within two years.

“An efficient and robust electricity network is an essential part of Bahrain’s vision to develop sustainable, world-class infrastructure,” declared Jan Mrosik, CEO, Energy Management Division, within Siemens.

“Upgrading to 400 kilovolts represents a milestone in the country’s transmission grid, boosting the voltage to satisfy the increasing demand for power, improve security of supply and stability and strengthen the country’s national grid. Siemens has been a development partner to Bahrain for 65 years.”

In Abu Dhabi, the Industrial Trent 60 gas turbine generator package, which Siemens shipped from its manufacturing facility in  Mount Vernon, Ohio, USA, to Adma-Opco’s SARB offshore oil field project on Zirku Island, is the first of five Industrial Trent 60 power generation packages to be delivered, installed and commissioned for Adma-Opco. The Aeroderivative Gas Turbine (AGT) is the first of three dual fuel units that will be delivered as part of the order that also includes two gas-only units.

The Siemens Industrial Trent 60 is the most advanced AGT available today. Generating up to 66 MW of electric power in simple-cycle service, at 42 per cent efficiency, the Industrial Trent 60 has established a new benchmark for fuel economy and fuel burn cost savings. It also offers operators fast delivery and installation times.

“As the initial high-scale Siemens AGT project in Abu Dhabi, the shipment of this first package is an important milestone in our contribution to the UAE’s energy sector,” said Dietmar Siersdorfer, CEO of Siemens Middle East and UAE. 

Originally developed for use in aviation, AGTs are compact with lighter-weight designs that are ideally suited for power generation in the oil and gas industry. Their high efficiency and fast-start capabilities mean that AGTs also perform well in distributed power generation applications.

The SARB offshore oil field project will have a daily capacity of 100,000 barrels of oil, equivalent to 160,000 200-liter drums, and 35 million cu ft of gas, the amount on which about 6,600 gas buses can run.