Dubai’s energy authority has awarded a $400 million contract to expand the M-Station power production and desalination plant to the German engineering firm Siemens, according to the UAE’s state news agency WAM.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) said the project will be delivered by April 20, 2018, at the total cost of $2.7 billion.

The M-Station is the newest and largest power production and desalination plant in the UAE, with a total capacity of 2,060 MW of electricity and 140 million imperial gallons of water per day, according to DEWA.

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, chief executive of DEWA, said the completion of the M-Station would boost DEWA’s installed capacity to 10,356 MW of electricity from 9,656 MW today.

“The expansion project includes new power generation units with a capacity of 700 MW to be added to the current capacity of the station to eventually produce 2,700 MW by 2018,” Al Tayer said. “The expansion project includes adding two gas turbine generators, two heat recovery steam turbine generators, and one back pressure steam turbine. This will increase the plant’s thermal efficiency from 82.4 percent to 85.8 percent, which is considered among the highest thermal efficiency rates in the world.”