HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance, and President of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), inaugurated the extension project of M-Station in Jebel Ali, the largest power and water desalination plant in the UAE.
With the construction of the extension, the total cost of M-Station reached AED 11.669 billion while its production capacity reached 2,885 megawatts (MW) and 140 million gallons of desalinated water per day. Built according to the highest standards of availability, reliability, efficiency and quality, the AED 1.527 billion extension project added new generating units with a capacity of 700MW.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by HE Mattar Humaid Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of DEWA; HE Saeed Al Kindi; HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA; and members of the Board of Directors of DEWA. The event was also attended by a number of VIPs and officials from Siemens, as well as DEWA officials and the media.
“At DEWA, we work to achieve the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and the directives of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, to raise Dubai’s profile and make a significant improvement in its quality of life, as part of supporting the UAE Centennial 2071 goal to make the UAE the best country in the world. To do this, DEWA has built a world-class infrastructure according to the highest standards of availability, reliability, efficiency, and quality. DEWA’s efforts have also been inspired by the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance and President of DEWA, whose support has been instrumental to our success,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer.
“One of the Eight Principles of Governance in Dubai, stated by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid is that, “Dubai’s growth is driven by three factors: a credible, resilient and excellent government; an active, fair and open private sector; and public and government-owned flagship companies that compete globally, and generate an income for the government, jobs for its citizens, and assets for future generations.” To achieve these directives, we are diligently working to make DEWA a leader in the management and execution of energy projects, in cooperation with the private sector,” he said.
“We recently achieved a global milestone, with Dubai receiving a platinum rating from LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Cities certification, awarded by the US Green Building Council. This made Dubai the first city in the Arab World and the Middle East and North Africa to receive this prestigious certification,” Al Tayer added.
“The extension to the M-Station supports the UAE’s strategy to adopt innovation and shape the future. We made sure that we followed world-class standards in various stages of this project’s implementation, as well as world-class operational technologies, state-of-the-art smart solutions, and information technology systems. The extension design has a 90% fuel efficiency rate. This project has been completed with over 20 million Safe Man Hours without Lost Time Injury. The project focused on capacity building and the transfer of international expertise to UAE nationals, contributing to the Emiratisation of the energy sector,” he further said.
“I would like to thank His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid for honouring us with his presence at this launch. I also thank all our partners including Siemens and Mott MacDonald for their contributions that helped make this project a reality,” Al Tayer concluded.
“The completion of the Jebel Ali M-Station expansion marks another milestone in the long history of Siemens and DEWA as strategic partners. It’s a testament to what we can achieve with innovation and technology to support society and economic growth in the UAE,” said Dietmar Siersdorfer, CEO, Siemens Middle East and UAE.
DEWA has achieved world-class results and set new global standards, breaking world records in energy and water performance indicators, including energy efficiency indicators and electricity cost per kilowatt-hour. It has also achieved the highest standards in global competitiveness indicators, which includes raising the fuel efficiency of the generation units to about 90%, competing with the highest international benchmarks, and improving production efficiency by 29.68% between 2006 and 2018. In addition, the availability and reliability of the generation units reached 100%, exceeding global rates of 91%.
Before the extension, M-Station generated 2,185MW of electricity from six Siemens F-model gas turbines, each with a capacity of 255MW, six Doosan Waste-Heat Recovery Boilers for steam generation, three Alstom steam turbines with a capacity of 218MW each. The Project also included construction of 16 fuel-oil storage tanks, each with a capacity of 20,000 cubic metres and totalling 320,000 cubic metres of fuel-oil storage. The station produces 140 MIGD from eight Fisia desalination units, deploying Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) distillation technology, each with a capacity of 17.5 MIGD and two dual-fuel-fired auxiliary boilers. The extension project added a total of 700MW of electricity to the M-Station. It includes two dual-fuel gas turbine generators each with a capacity of 263.5 MW, two Waste Heat-Recovery Boilers for steam generation and a back pressure steam turbine from Siemens with capacity of 173MW. The extension’s design has a 90% fuel efficiency, which has increased the plant’s overall fuel efficiency from 82.4% to 85.8%, which is one of the highest fuel efficiency rates in the world. The extenstion project has increased M-station’s total capacity to 2,885MW. DEWA continuously works to build a robust infrastructure to enhance its total production capacity, which is currently 11,100 MW of electricity and 470 MIGD of water production.