Rehabilitation Program at 700-Megawatt Rifaa Power Station Enters Final Stage

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Bahrain's Ministry of Water and Electricity (MWE) announced that the rehabilitation of the last two of six Alstom (EPA:ALO) (Levallois-Perret, France) GT13D2 75-megawatt (MW) gas turbines at the 700-MW Rifaa Power Station will start in October. The rehabilitation works will be carried out during planned major overhauls scheduled to be performed in the GT-8 unit from October 6, 2008, to March 23, 2009, and in the GT-9 unit from December 6, 2008, to May 6, 2009.

In June 2006, the MWE signed a contract with Alstom for a $140 million modernization program of the six GT13D2 gas turbines. During this program, which started in November 2006, the turbines were upgraded to GT13DM turbines by replacing the blading and the vane carrier, as well as modifying the exhaust gas housing. The scope of the rehabilitation program was to restore the efficiency lost by the aging of the 20-year-old turbines and extending their life for at least 15 years. The plan also aims at reducing nitrous-oxide emissions and to extend the major overhauls intervals from three to four years. The contract also includes the modernization of instrumentation and the control and electrical systems. Four units have already been upgraded.

This is the second phase of a major rehabilitation program for the Rifaa Power Plant, which has an installed capacity that includes five 50-MW Siemens (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany) gas turbines in addition to the six 75-MW Alstom gas turbines. The first phase of the project ended in 2002 and consisted of the rehabilitation of the five Siemens turbines.

View Plant Profile -- 1044542

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.