Mass Energy Group Holding has awarded GE a multiyear operation and maintenance (O&M) services contract, worth $520 million, for the 3,000 MW Basmaya combined-cycle gas gas power plant. The deal came to fruition following “continuing effort” between Mass Energy Group and the Iraqi ministry of electricity to bring more electricity to the people of Iraq.
The Basmaya CCGT is routed in the “first-of-its-kind independent power producer agreement” between Mass Energy and the Iraqi electricity ministry, Ahmad Ismail, chairman of Mass Energy Group said. The mega-plant not only helps meet Iraq’s fast-rising power demand but also support the government’s focus on building its infrastructure and strengthening local industries.
“The power plant will feed the national grid, benefiting all sections of the community,” Mr Ismail said, adding that “GE has been our long-term partner, and by operating the plant, [it] is bringing its advanced technology solutions to help us to deliver the highest levels of efficiency, reliability and productivity.”
The latest multiyear O&M accord builds on an earlier contract under which GE committed to provide Basmaya with eight of its 9FA gas turbines and four C7 steam turbines. The CCGT project is being developed in two phases, with each phase delivering 1500 MW of power.
The deal is also a first for GE to bring Predix, a cloud-based operating system, to an Iraqi power plant. Hereby, Asset Performance Management (APM) software with anomaly detection capability helps predict outages before they happen, GE said, hence improving plant reliability, optimizing maintenance intervals and reducing plant downtime.
With three offices in Iraq—in Baghdad, Erbil and Basra—GE delivers technology and services to what it counts as over more than 130 GE turbines are in operation in the country. The American OEM also said it supplied Iraq’s energy ministry with 56 more gas turbines for various projects, which generate about 7600 MW combined.