Alstom announced the successful completion of the handover of the 1.2 GW Shoaiba III steam power plant to the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), following timely completion of the project's final unit.

Comprising three individual 400 MW blocks, the Shoaiba III plant began in September 2008 and has been built around Alstom's proven STF40 steam turbines and GIGATOP 2-pole turbogenerators. To meet stringent Saudi environmental regulations, it also utilises Alstom's environmental control systems expertise. A seawater flue gas desulphurisation (SWFGD) system drastically cuts emissions by using brine to strip sulphur oxides from the flue gas, whilst NOx-reducing tangential firing technology employed in the boilers mitigates nitrogen oxides – both helping make Shoaiba III a cleaner electricity provider.

Located on the Red Sea coast 100 km south of Jeddah, Shoaiba III is part of the enormous Shoaiba facility, which now generates a total of 5,600 megawatts to the Saudi grid from its fourteen units. Not just the largest power plant in the Kingdom but also the biggest in the whole region, Shoaiba has become known as 'the Giant of the Middle East'.