Siemens celebrates arrival of first 4 gas turbines to Beni Suef electricity station

The German company Siemens organized a celebration Thursday for delivery of first four gas turbines giant model "H-Class" to Beni Suef electricity station. 

Two of the 400 megawatt (MW) turbines alongside six 500 kilovolt (kV) generator transformers have been installed at the electricity station. 

On completion, the Beni Suef power plant in Egypt is set to become the world’s biggest gas-fired combined-cycle power plant complex.

Situated around 110km south of Cairo, the Beni Suef plant will start supplying its first electricity to the national energy grid as early as winter 2016/2017. To achieve that, it will initially be operated in so-called simple cycle mode.

By subsequently adding heat exchangers and steam turbines it will be expanded into combined cycle mode reaching a total installed capacity of 4.8 gigawatts (GW). 

This is enough to supply around 15 million Egyptians with electricity, said a statement from Siemens.

“Today, we celebrate an important milestone in the modernization of Egypt’s energy infrastructure and I am sure that many other milestones will follow,” said deputy electricity minister Mohamed Asran. 

“Egypt is undergoing economic transformation and as the country embarks on a series of ambitious infrastructure projects, efficient and reliable electricity will be essential to powering this development," he added.

"The Beni Suef plant, alongside Siemens’ other power projects in the country, will definitely make an important contribution towards sustainable power supply in Egypt," he said. 

Chief executive of the Siemens (Power & Gas) Willi Meixner said that Egypt’s sustainable development strategy outlines the need to provide affordable, reliable and modern energy services, boost energy efficiency and diversify the country’s energy mix.

"We are proud to be part of this vision and to celebrate another step towards its realization today. Thanks to innovative technology, our energy projects in Egypt are set to transform the power landscape – boosting power generation by 50 percent, creating thousands of jobs and resulting in 1.3-billion-dollar in fuel savings annually," he added.

The event was attended by the Beni Seuf governor, executives from Elsewedy Electric, Siemens’ construction partner for the plant, a host of customers and officials as well as Siemens global and regional executives.