Algeria’s state electricity and gas utility Sonelgaz has awarded General Electric of the US a $161mn contract for eight trailer-mounted TM2500+ aeroderivative gas turbine generators with a combined capacity of 240MW. They will begin operating this month at a number of sites near substations throughout Algeria, where they will help meet peak demand and improve grid reliability. They can burn either gas or liquid fuel.
Small mobile power units are key to Sonelgaz’s plans to meet rapidly rising electricity demand in the near term, while more than 12GW of new capacity, including eight combined cycle gas turbine plants with a combined capacity of 9.26GW, are built by the end of 2016 (MEES, 7 March). Sonelgaz currently operates 840MW of mobile capacity – provided by GE, Japan’s Mitsubishi and Greece’s Metka – which contributed a major part of Algeria’s 2013 capacity increase of 2.09GW to 14.95GW (MEES, 27 June). (CONTINUED - 276 WORDS)
