Marafiq, the world biggest integrated water and power plant (IWPP) with 2,745 MWe and 800,000 cbm/d desalinated water output, GE Energy and Jomel have carried out the shortest planned outage cycletime for gas turbine maintenance in Saudi Arabia. Works were done over a span of 18 days – well ahead of the planned 25 days.
“Cutting the outage time by seven days enhances productivity at Marafiq and enables the team to deliver more electricity to benefit the local community,” said Jomel general manager Stefan Verlee.
Jomel (Jubail Operations and Maintenance Company), a joint venture between ENGIE and Nomac, carries out operations and maintenance services for Marafiq. Commenting on the latest maintenance process, GE said improved on its own Saudi Arabia record in 7FA outage cycle time of 22 days.
To achieve this milestone, the two partners carefully planned the outage cycle process, identified risks beforehand and ensured quality control. Adequate resources were in place for a smooth and speedy execution, backed by the GE Manufacturing & Technology Center (GEMTEC) and its engineering and support team in Dammam.
“The new outage execution record at Marafiq highlights GE’s commitment to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible to deliver better results for our customers in the power generation industry,” said Joseph Anis, President & CEO of GE’s Power Services business in the Middle East & Africa.
Hisham Al Bahkali, President & CEO, GE Saudi Arabia & Bahrain added GE’s investments in local facilities such as GEMTEC helps improve the professional capabilities of Saudis and supports the Kingdom’s goals under Saudi Vision 2030.
Ownership of the Marafiq IWPP in Jubail held by a joint venture between Marafiq, Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), the Public Investment Fund of the Ministry of Finance and the International Suez Consortium, comprising Suez Energy of Belgium, Gulf Investment Corporation of Kuwait and ACWA Power Projects of Saudi Arabia.
The Marafiq IWPP provides electricity to the cities Jubail and Yanb; it is driven by 12 GE Frame 7FA gas turbines, four steam turbines and 12 heat recovery steam generators.