GE wins drive deal for Yanbu 3 desalination plant

GE’s Power Conversion arm has won a deal to provide the electrical variable speed drive (eVSD) system, including motors and MV7000 drives, to the Yanbu 3 power and desalination plant under construction in Saudi Arabia.

 The systems will reduce the energy needed to run the desalination process as well as the overall cost, said GE.

GE is supplying its MV7000 eVSD drive and electric motor equipment to pumps manufacturer KSB and its customer, local engineering, procurement and construction company Al-Toukhi. The equipment will be used to power the boiler feed pumps at Saline Water Conversion Corporation’s (SWCC’s) Yanbu 3 facility.



The deal includes 15 induction motors (17.1 MW each), 15 input transformers (23MVA) and 15 medium voltage variable frequency drives each rated at 18 MW.

”Our research has shown that an 8% increase in energy efficiency will help save the region SR 50 billion (US$ 13.3 billion) over 10 years, and we are committed to working with the Kingdom to deliver these savings,” said GE’s Power Conversion’s general manager, Sandro Malquori.

Saudi’s SWCC is building the Yanbu 3 power and water treatment facility on the Red Sea coast, about 200 km north of Jeddah, to provide 2,700 MW of reliable electricity and 550,000 m³/d of clean water for eight million residents and businesses in the region.