Dubai’s DEWA completes over 50% of Dhs147bn M-Station expansion

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has completed 53 per cent of its M-Station expansion project, it announced on Wednesday.

The Dhs11.62bn M-Station is the newest and largest power production and water desalination plant in the UAE.

The expansion project, estimated to cost Dhs1.47bn, includes new power generation units with a capacity of 700MW to be added to the current capacity of the station to eventually produce 2,760MW by 2018.

Its current total capacity is 2,060MW of electricity and 140 million imperial gallons of water per day (MIGD).

DEWA is set to inaugurate two gas turbine generators on May 31, 2017, which will be followed by the addition of two heat recovery steam turbine generators and one back-pressure steam turbine on April 30, 2018.

This will increase the plant’s thermal efficiency from 82.4 per cent to 85.8 per cent, DEWA said in a statement.

The M-Station project was launched in 2013 at an initial cost of Dhs10.15bn.

The amount includes Dhs6.2bn for electricity to provide 2060MW through six Siemens (F) model gas turbines with a capacity of 234MW each, six heat recovery steam turbine generators, and three back-pressure steam turbines with a capacity of 218MW each.

The desalination system, costing Dhs3.95bn, uses eight desalination units with multi-stage flash distillation technology, with a capacity of 17.5 million MIGD for each unit.

There are two dual-fuel fired auxiliary boilers of 390 tonnes per hour and 16 fuel oil storage tanks each with a capacity of 20,000 cubic metres. The total fuel storage tank’s capacity is 320,000 cubic meters.

The project has been completed in phases since mid-2010. It will be delivered by the end of April 2018.

DEWA is working on increasing its installed power and water capacity, which currently stands at 9,900MW of electricity and 470 million imperial gallons of water per day.

The utility currently operates 21 (400kV) substations, and 222 (132kV) substations.