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By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 15 May 2014:
North Benghazi power station has taken . . .[restrict]delivery of its third combined-cycle turbine. It has the capacity to generate an additional 250 MW.
“We received the third combined-cycle turbine and its attached equipment on Monday,” the manager of the North Benghazi Power Station, Rafa Gaderbou, told the Libya Herald.
In electric power generation, a combined cycle is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from one source of heat, converting it to mechanical energy, which powers electrical generators. The benefit of this system is that the second engine is able to use some of the energy from the waste heat of the first engine, which can increase the overall efficiency of the unit by as much as 50-60 percent.
When the North Benghazi Power Station in Kuwaifiya district first opened, it functioned with three units. In 1995, a fourth unit with 165 megawatts was added. By the end of 2002, the station had a maximum capacity of 750 megawatts, powered by gas.
In addition to this, the main General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) stores in Kuwaifiya, Benghazi sent transformers, street lighting equipment, cables, and electrical wires to the supporting Kufra power station, which is powered by light fuel and has a capacity of about 50 megawatts.
“We’ve sent electrical equipment to Kufra in an effort to reinforce the power station there, which was originally established as a support station,” the manager of the distribution department in Sahel Benghazi, Salah Al-Abar, told the Libya Herald.
Sahel Benghazi lies between the towns of Al-Bayada and Brega along the coast in eastern Libya and extends to the south, covering the Sarir area up to Kufra and Tazerbu.
“We took this action in order to bolster the national grid and aid in the completion of the work in Kufra, which we could not do before now because of the security issues in town,” explained Al-Abar.
With the onset of summer and Ramadan quickly approaching, Libyans are concerned that their cities and towns will experience power outages similar to those of last summer. Many people have even considered purchasing generators for their homes. However, Lutfi Ghoma, spokesman of the GECOL, told the Libya Herald, “We are making a significant effort prevent power outages and to furnish the capital and all the other Libyan cities with adequate electricity, and we plan to use additional generators to make up for any deficiencies. [/restrict]
