Photo Courtesy of GE

Algeria has one of GE's largest installed equipment bases, including more than 400 gas turbines, 340 compressors and 35,000 kilometers of inspected pipelines.

Algeria’s national electricity-and-gas company, Sonelgaz, has, through one of its subsidiaries, signed three power-generation equipment-supply contracts with Fairfield, Conn.-based GE worth $2.7 billion as the country prepares to meet increasing domestic energy consumption, now estimated at 30.9 billion cu meters.

The three contracts, awarded on Sept. 23 by Sonelgaz’s Société Algérienne de Production de l’Electricité (SPE Spa), are for the supply and maintenance of heavy-duty combined-cycle and aeroderivatives gas-turbine technology for nine powerplants with a combined capacity of 9 GW.

In the first contract, valued at $1.9 billion, GE will supply syngas turbines for six new combined-cycle powerplants. Twenty-six heavy-duty gas turbines will be made at the company’s Greenville, S.C., plant. Twelve steam turbines and 38 generators will be manufactured at GE’s Schenectady, N.Y., facility before they are shipped to Algeria for installation. The six plants will generate 8 GW to Algeria’s electricity grid by 2017.

Steve Bolze, president and CEO of GE Power and Water, says the equipment for the six powerplants will be fitted with the company’s Dry Low NOx dual-fuel combustion technology to reduce emissions.

"Advanced-technology gas turbines are one of the largest sources of cleaner energy exported from the U.S.,” he says.

Under the second, $800-million contract, GE will complete shipping and installation of trailer-mounted TM 2500+ aeroderivatives gas turbines and services to enable Algeria meet its summer-peak electricity demand.

In the third contract, GE—under a joint venture with Power Projects Co., an affiliate of Greece-based engineering, procurement and construction firm METKA—will deliver eight turbines for a 528-MW simple-cycle powerplant. The eight turbines with 176-MW capacity, which are slated to be delivered by the end of 2013, will be the final batch of the 24 procured from GE. The energy company previously delivered 16 turbines with an output of 352 MW.

Algeria, whose annual electricity demand is estimated to be growing at an average annual rate of about 14%, also expects to add 370 MW to its electricity grid under the third contract with GE; the company will supply power-generation equipment worth $150 million for the Hassi R’mel simple-cycle gas-turbine plant in the northern part of the country.

“In addition to supplying equipment for the [SPE] plants, GE power-generation services include new unit spares, technical direction, installation and training to help increase the performance, flexibility and reliability of operations at the powerplants,” Bolze says.

SPE CEO Nabil Kafi says the three contracts signal “an important step in realizing Sonelgaz’s strategy [involving] the implementation of a series of industrial partnerships predicated on the use of local resources.” He termed the deal “the most important [SPE] acquisition in [the] history of power generation in Algeria.”