Co-developers GE Energy Financial Services (“GE EFS”) and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation (“Sumitomo”) signed an approximately 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority (SEWA) in 2018 to develop, build and operate the plant. Following financial close in 2019, co-developers along with Shikoku Electric Power Company and Sharjah Asset Management (“SAM”), the investment arm of the Government of Sharjah, formed a joint venture company – Sharjah Hamriyah Independent Power Company (SHIPCO) – to build, own and operate the project, which is the first independent combined cycle power plant in Sharjah.
GE’s HA technology is the fastest growing fleet of heavy-duty gas turbines globally and has already set two world records for efficiency, one each in the 60 hertz and 50 hertz segments of the power market. Higher efficiency levels mean that less fuel needs to be consumed and that there are fewer emissions per megawatt of electricity generated. In fact, using three GE 9HA.01 units in combined cycle operations can help SEWA reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 4 million tons per year, compared to current levels. This is the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the UAE’s roads.
A team of over 1,300 people has been mobilized for the project. In addition to the two HA units, GE Gas Power has also already delivered several other pieces of key equipment at the site, including two steam turbines, two gas turbine generators, two steam turbine generators, two Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG), two condensers, power island e-rooms and step-up transformers. Almost all the civil works, up to 85 percent of the procurement, and up to 60 percent of construction and commissioning works at the Hamriyah project, are now complete.