Sonelgaz to Develop 8,400-Megawatts of Thermal Power Capacity by 2015

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--In order to meet increasing and incessant demand for electricity, Algeria's state-owned enterprise Sonelgaz SPA (Alger, Algeria) has planned to strengthen the country's domestic power production by developing combine cycle power plants at six different sites with an aggregate capacity of 8,400 megawatt (MW) by 2015. Societe Algerienne De Production De L'electricite (SPE) (Alger, Algeria), subsidiary of Sonelgaz SPA has signed a contract of €1.5-billion with General Electric (NYSE:GE) to supply the equipments and balance of plants to these projects.

These power plants will be developed at Mostaghanem and Jijel (North Algeria), Kais and Oumache (East Algeria), Djelfa (Central Algeria), Naama in West Algeria. All these six power plants will have the same 2:1 configuration, comprising of two blocks of two gas turbines and one steam turbine in combine cycle multi-shaft configuration with capacities ranging from 1,300 MW to 1,600 MW.

GE and Siemens (NYSE:SI) were the major bidders for this contract. GE has bagged the contract quoting 2.27 Dinar per kilowatt-hour (kWh), against Siemens' offer of 2.41 Dinar per kWh. As per the terms of the contract, GE will supply 24 gas turbines, 12 steam turbines and 36 alternator and generator sets.

Sonalgaz (Société nationale de l'électricité et du gaz), national body for electricity and gas in Algeria, was created in 1969 replacing previous entity Électricité et gaz d'Algérie (EGA). It currently operates power plants with a total generation capacity of 57.39 Terawatt-hours (tWh). Algeria has 225,308 circuit-kilometers of power lines, serving almost the entire population of the country. There are plans to increase the size of the network by 5% in the coming years in order to reach isolated rural communities and hydrocarbon developments in the Sahara Desert.

Algeria also exports some electricity to its neighboring countries, and there are plans to export electricity to Europe. Algeria has proposed undersea power connections to Italy and Spain, which is likely to run in conjunction with natural gas pipelines. However, Algeria's ability to export electricity in the future will depend upon its ability to build enough generation capacity to meet the soaring domestic demand. By 2020, Sonalgaz group expects to invest $10 billion in various infrastructures for distribution of gas and power projects.

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