Kuwait’s Electricity and Water Ministry is planning to expand two power projects at Al-Zour South and Subiya. Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts will be put out to tender soon, according to Suhaila Marafi, director of studies and research at the ministry.

The Al Zour South project will be extended by 450MW with two 225MW gas turbines. The original project has previously been extended several times. France’s Alstom and the local Al-Ghanim International are currently converting the existing simple cycle gas-fired project into a combined-cycle plant on a design, build and operate basis. The conversion will add a 400MW steam turbine to the existing 800MW plant. The two companies built the original project.

Alstom won the €150m ($205m) contract to supply five gas turbines to the project in July 2007. Alghanim was the contractor on the 800MW Al-Zour South scheme. This project formed part of the ministry’s emergency power programme for 2008.

Meanwhile, the Subiya power station will be expanded by 400MW through the addition of two 200MW gas turbines. The project will then be converted to combined-cycle technology to add a further 200MW.

The existing Subiya power plant, in Al-Jahra governorate, is under construction and nearing completion. It will have a capacity of 2,100MW when the first stage is complete. The US’ GE and South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) won the contract to build the project in 2009.