Just six month after signing an accord with Iran’s MAPNA Group, Siemens has shipped the first F-class gas turbine for a power plant project in Bandar Abbas. This is the first stage of a bilateral contract which also covers the transfer of know-how for F-class gas turbine technology.
As part of the Bandar Abbas gas power plant, this turbine along with the rest of the equipment will be provided by MAPNA, Iran’s largest EPC contractor. To be built in the port city of Bandar Abbas, the plant will have an electrical capacity of approximately 600 MW, sufficient to supply electricity to 150,000 Iranian homes.
License to manufacture in Iran
In March 2016, Siemens struck an agreement with MAPNA to collaborate on the transfer of know-how for the F-class gas turbine technology with a view to modernizing the Iranian power supply system. The accord includes a license for manufacturing F-class gas turbines in Iran. More than 20 gas turbines as well as the associated generators are scheduled to be delivered over the next four to five years.
As part of this agreement, the two companies also signed a contract that covers not only the two SGT5-4000F gas turbines but also two SGen5-2000H generators and the associated power plant instrumentation and controls. Siemens' activities in Iran go back as far as 1868 and focus on infrastructure projects. “With the delivery of the first gas turbine to Iran we are renewing our long-term partnership with MAPNA with the aim of modernizing and expanding the country's power supply network," commented Willi Meixner, CEO of the Siemens Power and Gas Division.
Going forward, the Iranian energy ministry is planning to build further gas-fired power plants in various locations across Iran to help cover electricity demand growth, which grows by approximately 5% each year. The government wants to increase the country’s generation capacities from approximately 74 GW today to a total of 100 GW over the coming five years. Most of the new-build power projects will be fuelled by natural gas.
