On 19 May Siemens marked with a special ceremony the arrival of four H-class gas turbines at the Beni Suef power plant in Egypt. Two of the 400 MW turbines together with 6x500 kV generator transformers were placed on their foundations, marking an important milestone towards the commissioning of the plant - which will in due course become, at 4.8 GW, the world's largest gas-fired combined-cycle power plant complex.
Located around 110 km south of Cairo, the Beni Suef plant is due to supply its first electricity to the national energy grid by the winter of 2016/2017. To achieve that, it will initially be operated in simple cycle mode, then by the addition of heat exchangers and steam turbines it will be expanded into combined cycle mode to reach a total installed capacity of 4.8 GW.
The ceremony was held by Siemens at the 500 000 square metre Beni Suef site in the presence of the Egyptian minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Dr Mohamed Shaker. "Today, we celebrate an important milestone in the modernisation of Egypt's energy infrastructure and I am sure that many other milestones will follow," said Dr. Shaker. "Egypt is undergoing economic transformation and as the country embarks on a series of ambitious infrastructure projects, efficient and reliable electricity will be essential to powering this development. The Beni Suef plant will definitely make an important contribution towards sustainable power supply in Egypt."
With its local partners, Siemens will build a total of three natural gas-fired combined cycle power plants with a total capacity of 14.4 GW in Egypt. 4.4 GW of this power will be connected to the national grid in 19 months - from signing to service - which is six months faster than the world benchmark.
Linkedin
