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President & CEO of Saudi Electricity Company Visits Rabigh Independent Power Project

23 Million Working Hours Without Any Injuries Occurred or Time Wasted at Rabigh Independent Power Project of 1204 Megawatt Capacity; and the Chinese Contractor Ahead of Construction Plan with 84% of the Project Complete
Rabigh - A delegation of top officials from Saudi Electricity Company ( SEC ), headed by the President & CEO, Eng. Ali S. Al Barrak, accompanied by several board members of Rabigh Electricity Company (RABEC) visited Rabigh Independent Power Project (IPP) on January, 18^th 2012 at the project location a 130 km north of Jeddah. Mr. Mohammad A. Abunayyan; Chairman of Rabigh Electricity Company (RABEC), and Eng. Abdulaziz Al Mahdi; Executive Managing Officer (EMO) met the delegation where Mr. Mohammad A. Abunayyan welcomed the guests and expressed how pleased and grateful he was for the visit which is part of the diligent follow-up of the progress of the project. He further pointed out that the visit of Eng. Ali Al Barrak was "Nothing but explicit clear proof of SEC 's approach to fulfilling its responsibility regarding paying great attention to the progress of such an important project; and being keen on being informed of accomplishments.

During this visit, Eng. Abdulaziz Al Mahdi, (EMO) of RABEC, presented a detailed overview of the project and the completed stages. Then Eng. Ali S. Al Barrak and the delegation took a site tour of the main aspects of Rabigh IPP and the stages completed to date.

Rabigh IPP is the flagship project launched by Saudi Electric Company (SEC) in 2009 structured on a concession or utility outsourcing contract model financed using a limited recourse, project finance framework. This project which was awarded to the consortium of ACWA Power International and the Korean Electric Power Company (KEPCO) who combined own an 80% share of the project and 20% owned by SEC . This is the first step in SEC 's plan to open up ownership and operations to the private sector to in turn support it to meet the rapidly increasing demand for power in Saudi Arabia between 2009 and 2020. It is also the first project in the Middle East based on Chinese technology and implemented by a Chinese contractor, the consortium of Dong Fang Electric Corporation and SEPCO III .

This consortium won the development of Rabigh IPP in 2009 with a bid 31% less than the second bid. It reached financial close on time although the Rabigh IPP financing was fell in the midst of the world financial crisis which spread all over the world in 2009. Even with the global financial crisis the Rabigh IPP was able to attract competitive financing which allowed it to submit a competitive tariff which shall save about 2 billion Saudi riyals of the national economy over the 20-year period.

Eng. Abdulaziz Al Mahdi; Executive EMO of RABEC, stated " we are proceeding at steady paces toward completing all the project stages; and here we are witnessing today the benefit of selecting a Chinese contractor and technology that 84% of the project completed up to date; in addition to that all standard tests were passed successfully. We look forward to completing operation stage of the first unit very soon. All these would not have been accomplished without, firstly, SEC 's guidance and careful follow-up. For this occasion, I have all the pleasure to sincerely thank and appreciate Eng. Ali S. Al Barrak; President & CEO of SEC , for his visit and continual follow-up to review various fundamental of the project. In addition, we truly appreciate the efforts put forth by "Independent Power Producers Program" team headed by Dr. Amer Al-Swaha for their cooperation and continual follow-up which have a great effect on reaching this stage in the project. I also would like to sincerely appreciate the efforts of staff, experts, and specialists who have put in a great deal of effort to bring this huge project to where it is today. Rabigh IPP recently completed (23) million working hours without any injuries or lost time occurred to date".

Rabigh IPP was named as the 2009 Middle East Power deal of the Year by Project Finance International (PFI), a Thomson Reuters publication and by Euromoney; and it also received the Euro Money Magazine award for 2009 Power Deal of the year. Rabigh IPP received the awards based on not only the funding it attracted; nearly SR 10 Billion (US$2.7 Billion) but did so as the first transaction to reopen access to long tenor project finance since the collapse of the debt and capital markets post the demise of Lehman Brothers and along the way established new benchmarks including being the first IPP/IWPP in the GCC to be undertaken without a Government Guarantee.

In a race against time, operation tests for the project commenced so that it will go into production on or even before its set planned timeframe; that first ICOD with a production capacity of 604 MW is scheduled for July 2012 G; and Rabigh IPP is expected to complete the second ICOD in April 2013 where it will reach its full production capacity of 1204 MW. Construction works of Rabigh IPP commenced in July 2009; and company has spent about two years and a half with continuous work on the project.

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© Press Release 2012