Gas power plant in Central Governorate, Saudi Arabia. Approximate location 25.826, 50.1351.
GasCentral GovernorateSaudi ArabiaSteamCO₂ modelled
Qurayyah Thermal power plant is a 6,275 MW gas power station in Central Governorate, Saudi Arabia. It is operated by Saudi Electricity Co. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 7.1 million homes (estimated). It ranks #2 of 156 Saudi Arabia power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1988, it is around 38 years old — long-established. Its modelled annual emissions are 20,764,000 t CO₂/yr (Climate TRACE), equivalent to about 4.8 million cars driven for a year. In context, gas supplies about 63.3% of Saudi Arabia's electricity; the national grid averages 692 gCO₂/kWh (2.2% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id CT-6401.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000405555); fuel: GEM wiki unit-level operating Fuel(s), fetched 2026-07-05
At 6,275 MW, Qurayyah Thermal power plant is well above the median gas plant in Saudi Arabia (497 MW). Technically it is described as Steam. Gas plants burn natural gas either in open-cycle turbines for fast peaking, or in combined-cycle units that recover exhaust heat in an HRSG to reach roughly 55–62% efficiency — the cleanest-burning fossil option.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; modelled emissions from Climate TRACE.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Saudi Electricity Co. All plants by this company →
This gas plant burns natural gas in a turbine — often in a combined-cycle setup — to generate electricity. It sits in a hot desert climate (Köppen BWh) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 25.8°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 98% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 14/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
A gas turbine here also runs ~8% below its ISO (15°C) rating at this annual mean (typical CCGT curve, estimate).
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #1 largest gas power plant of 71 in Saudi Arabia by capacity.
Saudi Arabia has 71 gas power plants in this dataset, together about 89,013 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 25.826, 50.1351 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Qurayyah Thermal power plant is a 6,275 MW source-record gas power plant in Central Governorate, Saudi Arabia, commissioned in 1988.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 7,067,668 homes (estimated).
Qurayyah Thermal power plant is operated by Saudi Electricity Co.
Qurayyah Thermal power plant has modelled emissions of about 20,764,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year (Climate TRACE).
