SEC Signs SR 4.7 Billion Deal For Riyadh Power Plant
By Arab News
Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) has signed a contract worth SR 4.7 billion to build a power plant outside Riyadh, the company said.
The plant with a capacity of 2,175 megawatts is to be built in 36 months in an area 100 km northwest of Riyadh, SEC said in a statement. It will be the 12th plant in the Riyadh area.
According to Reuters, industry sources familiar with the bidding said recently that Arabian Bemco Contracting Co. (Bemco) had submitted the lowest bid to build a nearly 2,000 MW power plant near Riyadh for SEC.
Saudi Electricity has an $ 80-billion investment plan to increase its power generation capacity by 30,000 MW by 2018 to meet power demand which is growing at around 8 percent each year.
The Kingdom has revised up its estimates for the amount it will invest in power projects over the next decade to more than SR 400 billion from SR 300 billion, Deputy Electricity Minister Saleh Al-Awaji said recently.
Al-Awaji said that in 2022, SEC needed to have an installed capacity of 120 gigawatt but that depends on whether growth rates remain the same, Reuters reported.
Saudi Electricity’s executive director for generation operations at SEC in the Eastern Region, Ayesh Al-Shemari, has said that the power load is expected to reach 87,000 MW by 2021 while installed capacity is seen at 100,000 MW.
Speaking at the Water, Electricity and Power Generation Forum and Exhibition (WEPower 2012) recently, Deputy Water Affairs Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Saud said power projects in the coming decade will be worth SR 300 billion.
