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Jordan Inaugurates Power Project

Jordan on 26 October inaugurated it first independent power plant (IPP), the 'Amman East Power Project, located 30km east of the capital. The combined cycle plant with a capacity of 370mw is expected to raise the country’s electricity generation capacity by about 15%. It was built by AES Jordan, a company owned by consortium of AES Oasis and Mitsui and Company, which owns and operates the plant. The $300mn project will run on Egyptian natural gas supplied via the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP), but also could use diesel. It will supply electricity to the National Electric Power Company, under a 25-year power purchase agreement. According to Jordan’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaldun Qutaishat, the plant will help meet surging demand for electricity in the kingdom. He also revealed that the financial close is imminent for another IPP at al-Qatrani, a combined cycle plant with a capacity of 370mw.

Meanwhile Mr Qutaishat told a group of Jordanian businessmen last week that the supply of electricity and water for the kingdom presented a major challenge for Jordan and that it will need total investments of $18bn in the energy sector until 2020 to meet rising domestic demand. He noted that the energy bill in 2008 was estimated at JD2.765bn ($3.899bn) compared to JD1.153bn ($1.626bn) in 2004. He expected demand for electricity to grow annually at 7.4% until 2020, with generation capacity rising to 5,770mw by then, compared to 2,660mw at present. He also said that Jordan has adopted a comprehensive national energy strategy which calls for a reduction in the dependence on imported energy resources and an increase in the use of domestic ones. These include development of gas reserves and oil shale, and a switch to nuclear energy for electricity generation. The minister added that at present imported gas accounts for 80% of electricity generation in the kingdom and that in 2008 Jordan imported 2.710bn cu ms of gas from Egypt via the AGP.  

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