Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), one of the world’s largest aluminium smelters, marked a new milestone in its Power Station 5 (PS5) Block 4 Project with the arrival of Mitsubishi Power’s M701JAC Gas Turbine (GT) on 16 October 2023.
The M701JAC GT is the first-of-its-kind in the world GT manufactured for a primary aluminium smelter and installed in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The JAC GT, an air-cooled version of the J-series GT and Steam Turbine, has a combined cycle output 680.9 MW and reduces CO2 emissions when compared to conventional coal fired boilers and turbines worldwide.
A special gathering was held at the Block 4 Project site on Tuesday 24 October 2023 to mark this milestone, which was attended by Alba’s Chief Executive Officer Mr. Ali Al Baqali, Chief Power Officer Mr. Amin Sultan and other top officials from Alba Management, Mr. Takashi Tozawa, Senior Fellow, Senior General Manager, GTCC Business Division of Energy Systems, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Mr. Javier Cavada, President and CEO, EMEA, Mitsubishi Power, Mr. Khalid Salem, President, MENA, Mitsubishi Power, Mr. Kong Lingfeng Vice President of SEPCOIII in addition to officials from ESBI, the ECM consultant on the Project.
Alba’s PS5 Block 4 Expansion Project is the addition of a fourth Block of similar combined cycle configuration with 680.9 megawatts (MW) M701JAC Gas Turbine Combined Cycle and includes tie into the existing 220kV Substation. Once operational in Q4 2024, Block 4 will increase the nameplate capacity of PS5 Complex from 1,800 MW to 2,481 MW and reduce its overall GHG emissions intensity ratio by 0.5 tonnes of CO2 per 1 tonne of aluminium produced.
