Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), has reviewed the progress of the M-Station expansion project, the newest and largest electricity generation and water desalination plant in the UAE.

Since 2015, DEWA has been working with Siemens on the Jebel Ali M-Station expansion, with the total cost for its construction and expansion estimated to be AED11.5 billion. The station’s total capacity will reach 2,885MW when the expansion project is completed in 2018. This includes the provision for new power generating units and adding 700MW to the installed generation capacity of M-Station.

The expansion project includes the addition of two dual-fuel gas turbine generators, two heat-recovery steam boilers, and a steam turbine that is 90 percent fuel efficient. This will increase the plant’s thermal efficiency from 82.4 percent to 85.8 percent, which is one of the highest thermal-efficiency rates in the world.

Al Tayer, who was accompanied by senior officials from DEWA, was briefed by Siemens representatives on the construction, engineering, and operational progress of the expansion project, which is on schedule. More than 70 percent of the project has been completed. This includes pouring 45,000 cubic metres of concrete (96 percent complete) and erecting 4,900 tonnes of structural steel and heavy metal work (75 percent complete). The work so far was achieved in 8.3 million safe man-hours without any injuries.

DEWA has been building a robust infrastructure to enhance its total production capacity, which is currently 10,200MW of electricity and 470 million imperial gallons of desalinated water per day (MIGD). M-Station has a current total capacity of 2,185MW of electricity and 140 MIGD. The station adopts the highest standards, using the most advanced technologies in the world. It is equipped with the latest smart devices and sophisticated heavy-duty technological systems.

M-Station was built at a cost of AED10.15 billion. Some AED6.2 billion was invested in the project to generate 2,185MW of electricity from six gas turbines (F-model) of Siemens, with a capacity of 255MW for each unit, as well as six boilers for waste-heat recovery and three steam turbines, with a capacity of 218MW each. The project has been implemented in phases since mid-2010.

Water desalination systems costing AED3.95 billion use eight desalination units, deploying multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation technology, each with a capacity of 17.5 MIGD and totalling 140 MIGD, two dual-fuel-fired auxiliary boilers of 390 tonnes per hour, and 16 fuel-oil storage tanks, each with a capacity of 20,000 cubic metres, with total fuel-oil storage of 320,000 cubic metres.

Source: Wam