One of the turbines in Sweden. Photo: Omar Camilleri/DOI

The three huge turbines to be used in the new gas-fired power station will be shipped to Malta in November, the consortium constructing the plant said yesterday.

Electrogas said the new turbines, being built by Siemens in Sweden, weigh some 36 tonnes each and had nearly been finished.

The new power station, which will convert liquefied natural gas into electricity, is expected to start generating power by next summer. Meanwhile, Siemens said the construction of the turbines took around 50 weeks and engineers required at least eight years experience before being allowed to work on them.

Each turbine consists of some 26,100 parts and once mounted on to anti-skid plates, they weigh in at a whopping 200 tonnes each.

Siemens said it had produced some 300 of the SGT-800 turbines over the past 15 years, with a 99.4 per cent reliability rate. The three turbines, which have a 25-year life span, will be joined by a steam turbine which, Siemens said, formed part of a tried and tested technology.

Malta is not the only country using the technology, as Siemens said it had sold about 60 of the turbines every year, with buyers from all over the world. Besides delivering the turbines and other auxiliary equipment, Siemens is also tasked with handling the bulk of the construction of the new power station.

The 200-Megawatt station is split into four parts: the main generating plant, which will house the turbines, the floating gas storage unit – a specifically converted LNG tanker – the gasification unit, which will convert the liquidified fuel into a gas, and a large jetty connecting the structure to the shore.

While work at the Delimara site has been repeatedly delayed, it is now steadily under way, with the foundations for the large turbines nearly completed.

Before the March 2013 election, the Labour Party promised that the plant would be completed within two years of Labour having been elected to power.

With that deadline long past, it has now targeted July of next year.

After partner Gasol dropped out of the consortium, Siemens, Socar, and local group GEM Holdings all became equal partners.