Dubai: The Abu Dhabi power and water company Taqa has secured its second major win in Saudi Arabia in recent months, this time from a joint venture featuring Saudi Aramco.
Taqa - already one of the largest listed integrated utility companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa - will with Jera Co., Japan’s largest power generation company, will build a greenfield industrial steam and electricity cogeneration plant in Jubail, at the Eastern Province of the Kingdom. It will supply electricity and steam for the Amiral petrochemical complex.
To this end, they have entered a 'power and steam purchase agreement' with Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company, a joint venture company between Saudi Aramco and TotalEnergies.
Likely to be operational in 2027, the Taqa-Jera cogeneration plant will supply up to 475MW of power generation and 452 tons per hour of steam from advanced combined cycle gas-fired technology.
Last January, Taqa had won another big-ticket contract in Saudi Arabia, for a water reservoir.
The Amiral petrochemical complex is expected to house one of the largest mixed-load steam crackers in the Gulf region. The cogeneration plant will include advanced power and steam generation systems, gas and water receiving systems, and gas insulated switchgear interconnections. (The project also has provision for the future installation of a carbon dioxide capture plant and is capable of hydrogen co-firing.)
The Amiral cogeneration plant will be developed by a special purpose entity owned by Taqa (holding 51 per cent) and Jera (49 per cent) on a 25-year build, own, and operate basis extendable by five years on mutual agreement. They will also undertake the operation and maintenance of the plant through an O&M special purpose entity.
According to Farid Al Awlaqi, CEO of Taqa Generation, said: “The signing of the offtake agreements for the cogeneration power and steam project at the Amiral petrochemical facility demonstrates the confidence in Taqa’s ability to deliver critical utilities, including power and steam effectively."
