Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the largest industrial company in the UAE outside oil and gas, and GE Gas Power signed an agreement to upgrade four existing GE 9F gas turbines at EGA’s Al Taweelah power plant, reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity, and contribute to the UAE’s Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative.

GE’s Advanced Gas Path (AGP) upgrade will include hardware and software improvements to drive operational flexibility and increase output, efficiency and availability. This is the first time the technology will be applied to F-class gas turbines in the UAE after it was successfully implemented on six smaller E-class turbines in the country. GE will also implement the “Live Outage” concept for the first time globally on its 9F fleet. Live Outage is a digitised platform that replaces the paper-based approach, reduces the risk of mistakes or rework, and speeds up the customers’ outage process.

Once the work is complete, power output from the four turbines is expected to increase by up to 72 megawatts (MW) for the same amount of fuel consumed. For the previous power output of 920 MW, greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by up to 74,000 tonnes annually, the equivalent of removing more than 16,000 cars from the roads.

Abdulnasser bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said, “At EGA, we are committed to embedding sustainability in everything we do. This includes improving the efficiency of our current captive natural gas-fired electricity generation fleet even though we plan to divest these assets and instead source the power we need from the grid.”

In March, EGA, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA), Dubal Holding and Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) announced a major initiative that would unlock significant further development of solar power generation capacity in Abu Dhabi, progress power asset and generation optimisation, and decarbonise EGA’s aluminium production in the country.