Power & Utilities

Power and utility projects combine the industrial division's whole scope in one contract: pressure vessels and air receivers for the plant's auxiliary systems, structural steelwork for plant buildings, pipe racks and equipment supports, and process piping between them. We fabricate each to project specification in Jeddah for power generation, district cooling, water utility and industrial-services projects across Saudi Arabia, with material traceability documented through the package.

The pages linked below explain what we build, how the grade is decided for hot, cooling-water and structural duty, what the documentation looks like, and what to send so the enquiry comes back as a firm quotation rather than a list of questions.

What we fabricate for power and utility projects

• Pressure vessels: air receivers, blowdown vessels, deaerator and feedwater tanks, filters and separators, fabricated and tested to the project code.
• Steel structures: pipe racks, equipment and tank supports, platforms, stairs and ladders, plant building steel and cable-tray supports.
• Process piping: auxiliary steam, condensate, cooling water, compressed air, fuel and chemical lines in carbon steel, stainless and duplex.
• Skid packages: dosing, sampling, pumping and compression skids assembled, wired to the panel and tested before dispatch.
• Plate rolling and welding fabrication for shells, ducts, hoppers and chutes that fall outside the vessel and structural codes.

Choosing the grade by duty

Structural steel is the volume item. Racks, supports and platforms are fabricated in S355JR or A36, with A572 grade 50 where the design calls for higher strength, decided by the structural engineer's code and the connection design. The carbon equivalent calculator gives a quick check on weldability when a plate certificate arrives with unfamiliar chemistry, and the article on carbon steel versus stainless for Gulf structures covers when a coastal plant should move exposed steel up a class.

Pressure parts follow the vessel code. A516 grade 70 is the usual plate for receivers and drums, with P265GH on European-code projects. Where duty runs hot, the stabilised austenitics 321 and 347 resist sensitisation in the welded condition, 304H is specified for creep-range strength and 310S for flue-gas and furnace exposure. Each grade page carries the chemistry and the mechanical values with their standard, product form and condition.

Cooling water decides the stainless grade at coastal plants. Seawater and brackish cooling circuits pit 316L in crevices and under deposits, so duplex 2205 is the usual floor and super duplex 2507 follows where temperature and stagnation push the risk higher. The PREN calculator ranks candidate grades from their composition for a first comparison.

Documentation the owner's inspector expects

Plate, sections, pipe and fittings are received with mill test certificates, heat numbers are transferred to the cut parts and recorded on the as-built drawing, and welding is performed to qualified procedures by qualified welders with the records filed in the final package. The inspection and test plan is agreed before fabrication, with the hold and witness points of the owner's inspector or third-party agency written in, so non-destructive examination, hydrostatic testing and painting are scoped rather than argued about.

Surface preparation and coating follow the project's painting specification, with the coastal or inland exposure named in the enquiry so the system offered matches the environment.

What a good enquiry contains

For vessels: design pressure and temperature, the fluid, the nozzle schedule, the code and the documentation level. For structures: the design drawings, the connection design or the instruction to produce it, the steel grade and the coating system. For piping: the line list, the piping class and the isometrics; pipe schedules explained is a short read if the schedule numbers on the line list need decoding. For skids: the process and instrumentation diagram and vendor data for mounted equipment. Weights for budgeting can be checked on the metal weight calculator. When the scope is defined, send the enquiry with the plant and package named.

Common questions

Can one contract cover the vessels, the structures and the piping?

Yes, and combining them is usually the better arrangement. One fabricator holding the vessel, the rack it sits on and the lines that connect them removes the interface arguments over nozzle positions, support locations and delivery sequence, and the documentation arrives as one package rather than three.

Which steel grade do you use for pipe racks and platforms?

Whichever the structural design specifies: commonly S355JR on European-code projects and A36 or A572 grade 50 on American-code projects. Sections and plate arrive with mill certificates, and the grade is confirmed on the drawing before cutting starts. If the design leaves the grade open, we propose one against the code and the connection design.

Do you fabricate the hot-side stainless parts as well as carbon steel?

Yes. Stabilised and heat-resisting austenitic grades are fabricated to qualified procedures with the filler and heat-input controls each grade needs. Material in these grades is sourced against the enquiry with its certificates when the quantity does not justify holding it, and the certificates join the fabrication records.

How are the skids tested before they leave?

Assembled on the base frame, piped, wired to the local panel and pressure-tested in the works, with functional checks on the instruments where the scope includes them. The test records travel with the skid, and site work reduces to setting, anchoring and connecting at the battery limit.