Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the world’s largest aluminium smelter ex-China, has awarded a full turnkey contract for a fourth additional block at its Power Station 5 to a consortium of Sepco III and Mitsubishi Power, a power solution brand of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).

Alba said on completion, the Block 4 will add 680.9 MW to Power Station 5’s 1,800 MW and scale up its total capacity to 2,480 MW. As per the terms of the contract, Mitsubishi Power & Sepco III consortium will be responsible for the design, engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power block.

Mitsubishi Power is set to further leverage decades of experience and innovation to build and supply the power technology, including the gas turbine, steam turbine, generators, and auxiliaries, in addition to providing technical support. The commercial operations on the project will begin in Q4 2024.

Alba’s Board of Directors Chairman Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Bin Daij Al Khalifa after signing the deal, said: "Investing in efficient gas turbine, our latest ambitious power project, will accelerate our ESG transition and enable Alba to reduce its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as we embrace Bahrain’s objectives to reach Net Zero by 2060," stated Shaikh Daij.

Meanwhile, Alba boosted its presence in the Asia-Pacific market with the opening of the company’s new sales office in Singapore.

In 2021, the Asian-Pacific market accounted for 21 per cent of Alba’s total sales by footprint and Alba’s client base has expanded across multiple countries in this region to include Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand.

To date, Alba has three global sales’ offices - Zurich (Switzerland), Hong Kong and Singapore as well as its subsidiary unit in Atlanta (US).