Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) is planning to build a 1,300MW power plant as part of its plans for a sixth pot line as part of its expansion plans.

According to sources close to the project, contractors are expected to be invited to bid for the project by the end of 2015. The plant will be Alba’s fifth power plant.

Firms that are expected to be invited to bid for the project:

• Siemens (Germany)
• GE (US)
• Alstom (France)
• Samsung C&T (South Korea)
• Mitsubishi Power Systems (Japan)
• Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) (South Korea)

The future of the planned project will depend on securing gas reserves. While a gas allocation for the plant has been approved, it is still not clear where the gas is going to come from.

Alba has been planning a sixth potline for several years, but has been hindered due to a lack of gas. MEED reported in 2011 that a new potline, as well as carrying out an efficiency and debottlenecking programme at the Middle East’s oldest smelter, would add more than 400,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of capacity to its current output of 870,000 t/y.

Alba currently has four power plants, which have a total capacity of 2,100MW to provide power for the aluminium smelter.

In addition to the proposed fifth power plant, Alba is planning to increase the efficiency of its existing power plants by utilising newer technology.

Speaking at MEED’s Bahrain Energy Forum in 2014, Amin Sultan, director of power and utilities at Alba, said: “We are looking for efficient turbines to reach an efficiency level of 50 per cent.”

Sultan said the current turbines had an average efficiency of about 40 per cent. He said that Alba had a flat peak electricity load of 1,650MW throughout the year. Alba currently has four power plants, which have a total capacity of 2,100MW to provide power for the aluminium smelter.