Phoenix Power Company tops the Hardware Utilities Technology category at the Middle East Technology Excellence Awards of 2021

Serving more than 240 thousand electricity customers, the power plant is the largest in Oman and supplies over 20% of the electricity in the country’s main system.

With its sustainable and environmentally conscious approach to power generation at its centre, Phoenix Power Company SAOG (PPC) has been recognised for its environmental innovation in the business of electricity generation.

This year, Middle East Technology Excellence Awards continue to give prestige to groundbreaking innovations grown from the gulf region’s most technologically advanced organisations as they continue to provide groundbreaking products and IT solutions.

Phoenix Power Company owns Sur Independent Power Plant (Sur IPP), which is Oman’s largest power plant with a 2,000-megawatt capacity. With natural gas as the primary fuel, the plant employs gas turbine combined cycle technology to produce electricity. Sur IPP went into commercial operation in December 2014 and ever since has been successful in adopting the latest technology to enhance its operations and move towards environment-friendly methods of generating electricity. 

An area of focus for Sur IPP has been improving the efficiency with which electricity is generated. Improving generation efficiency reduces the natural gas required to produce electricity. Natural gas is a limited resource in Oman and all efforts to conserve it are therefore critical. Additionally, reducing gas consumption leads to lower carbon dioxide emissions to the environment, which is a primary driver behind the plant’s innovative pursuits.
 

Sur IPP is capable of both open cycle and combined cycle operation. With open cycle operation, natural gas is burned to produce electricity using a gas turbine. In combined cycle operation, the excess heat from burning the gas is used to produce steam and generate additional electricity through a steam turbine. The plant normally runs in combined cycle mode for efficient and sustainable operation. 

Driven by its vision to be the safest, most reliable, efficient, and environmentally conscious energy provider in Oman, PPC implemented a project to enhance the efficiency of its combined cycle operation by utilising a Fuel Gas Performance Heater to increase the temperature of the gas entering the process. Increasing the gas temperature improves the combined cycle efficiency by reducing the amount of fuel needed to achieve the desired firing temperatures, which in turn reduces the emission levels. 

Following the project implementation, Sur IPP was able to improve the efficiency of generation by up to 0.3%. Additionally, with lower consumption of natural gas, Sur IPP reduced emissions by an amount equivalent to planting up to 8000 trees every year.

Never satisfied with the status quo, PPC continues challenging their existing operations through the implementation of technology-based solutions to achieve excellence in performance whilst placing sustainability at the core of all decisions.