Country United Arab Emirates Status Operational Primary fuel Natural gas Construction cost 1.2 billion USD | Location Qidfa', Fujairah Commission date 2004 Construction began 2002 | |
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Owner(s) Emirates SembCorp Water and Power Company | ||
Fujairah power and desalination plant is a hybrid plant at Qidfa', Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. It is located next to the Qidfa Power Station 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of Khor Fakkan and 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of the city of Fujairah. When constructed, the Fujairah plant was the first hybrid plant in the Middle East, and the largest desalination hybrid plant in the world.
Contents
History
A construction contract was awarded to Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Company in June 2001 and the contract was signed in June 2002. In August 2001, a contract for the transmission systems was awarded to a joint venture of Al Jaber Energy Services and Technip. The first few liters of potable water were produced in April 2004. Total construction costs of the project were US$1.2 billion
Technical description
The Fujairah plant has an installed power capacity of 760 MW and it produces 455,000 cubic meters per day (16,100,000 cu ft/d) of water. It is a natural gas-fired plant supplied from the Dolphin Gas Project through the Al Ain-Fujairah pipeline. Its annual consumption is 1.4 billion cubic metres (49 billion cubic feet) of natural gas. Its power generating side consists of four gas turbines, two heat recovery steam generators and two steam turbines in a combined cycle configuration. 120 MW of capacity is used for the water desalination process and 36 MW accounted for the transmission lost, leaving 500 MW of capacity for supplies to the grid through a 68 kilometres (42 mi) long double circuit 400 kV transmission line.
For the water desalination, the Fujairah plant uses a combination of two different desalination technologies. 284,000 cubic meters per day (10,000,000 cu ft/d) of water is produced using multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) technology and 171,000 cubic meters per day (6,000,000 cu ft/d) of water is produced using reverse osmosis technology (RO). The water production system consists of five MSF units producing 57,000 cubic meters per day (2,000,000 cu ft/d) of water each and one RO unit. Potable water is stored in five tanks, 91,000 cubic meters (3,200,000 cu ft) each. The water output is pumped to Sweihan through a 179 kilometres (111 mi) dual pipeline with an 18 kilometres (11 mi) spur to Al Dhaid in Sharjah.
Operating company
The plant was originally owned by the Union Water and Electricity Company (UWEC), established in June 2001 as a government owned company through the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA). The plant was operated and maintained by Sogex Oman under agreement with UWEC. In 2006, 40% stake in UWEC was sold to Singapore-based Sembcorp Utilities and SembCorp took over the plant's operating activities. After privatization the company was renamed Emirates SembCorp Water and Power Company.
Future expansion
According to the privatization agreement, the power capacity of the Fujairah plant would be expanded by 225 MW and water production would be expanded by 136,500 cubic meters (4,820,000 cu ft) of water per day.