Ras Al-Khair Industrial City power network capacity and reliability

Ras Al-Kahir Industrial City, which is approximately 80km northwest of Jubail Industrial City on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, comprises of world-class complex of metal and minerals industries. To support such a huge industrial complex, a strong and reliable power network is planned by the Royal Commission in coordination with Saudi Electricity Company. The US engineering firm Bechtel Corporation is assisting the Royal Commission in putting in place massive infrastructure facilities including power network for RIC. To supply the RIC industrial power requirements, the Royal Commission is building three (3) major 380/115/33kV substations and associated overhead power lines for interconnection with SEC power network. Two (2) of these substations are under construction; while the third one is under design stage. The RC will design, procure, implement and fund the entire cost of RIC power network in coordination with SEC. After completion the facilities will be handed over to SEC for operation and maintenance as per the prevailing RC asset transfer policy. The substations are strategically located to supply the industries´ power requirement. The primary industries will be supplied at 380kV either directly from SEC grid or from the RIC substations at 380kV or 115kV level; while secondary and support industries will be fed at 33kV level. Each substation will be designed for a capacity of 1,000 MVA and will consist of 380 kV, 115kV and 33kV voltage levels to supply the industries as per their power requirements. The substations are interconnected within RIC and with SEC power network. The power network is designed to supply the power to the industries and the community areas under n-1 contingency condition, i.e., during failure or planned outage of one major system element, the system is capable to supply the customers. The main power supply source will be SWCC; while SEC is also planning to acquire a land to develop a power plant in the vicinity. The other nearby SEC plants like Ghazlan, Wasit and MARAFIQ will also share the power supply to the RIC industries. As such, a strong and reliable power network is planned to supply the RIC industrial loads at desired reliability level. The system redundancy and nearby availability of power sources are additional benefits towards the strength of RIC network. The paper discusses the load forecast, system capacity and reliability of the power grid of Ras Al-Khair Industrial City. It also discusses the system redundancy and availability of nearby power sources to supply the metal and mineral industries complex at Ras Al-Khair Industrial City.