WSP is celebrating the reopening of one of Turkey’s largest natural gas combined cycle plants located in Hamitabat, Kırklareli. Originally constructed in the early 1980s, the newly renovated 1,220MW power plant will help meet the energy demand for the European side of Turkey, including the Thrace area and Istanbul.
Limak Enerji bought Hamitabat from the Turkish government in August 2013 to upgrade the power plant which was coming to the end of its operational life, and appointed WSP to serve as the owner’s engineer from feasibility study and engineering design through to construction, start up and commissioning. This appointment followed WSP’s successful due diligence work on Hamitabat since October 2012.
The Hamitabat project has been unique in the way it has retained the cooling towers and other infrastructure built in the 1980s while integrating the latest ‘H’ class gas turbine technology developed by Siemens. As a result of the renovation the power plant is expected to consume less natural gas, reduce noise emission by 15%, and water consumption is expected to decrease from 318,000 tonnes to 154,000 tonnes.
Garry Halliday, Project Manager at WSP said: “We’re delighted to handover this much-needed power plant to our client Limak Enerji. The project has been a tremendous collaboration of diverse talent and proficiency from our UK and Turkish offices on this challenging project. The clever integration of the new turbines to the existing infrastructure has not only brought about environmental benefits but also economic benefits in the form of jobs to the region.”
