Saturday, Oct 29, 2011
RIYADH (Zawya Dow Jones)--Saudi Electricity Co. (5110.SA), or SEC, the largest-listed utility in the Gulf, said Saturday it signed a deal with an unspecified firm to build a 4.6 billion Saudi riyal ($1.23 billion) Shoaiba power plant in the south of Jeddah on the Red Sea.
The combined-cycle plant will have a capacity of 1,238 megawatt and will help meet the needs of the industrial sector in the Jeddah, it said in a statement posted on the Saudi bourse website.
The project will take 35 months to be completed, SEC, whose major shareholder is the Saudi government, added.
Saudi Arabia, which is struggling to supply uninterrupted electricity during a population boom and industrial expansion, expects SEC to invest $80 billion over the next 10 years to add 20,000 megawatts of power generation capacity. Saudi Electricity earlier this month said it launched the kingdom's first power station using solar energy at the southern Red Sea coast. The construction of the power plant located at the Farasan Island in the Jizan province was funded by the Japanese firm Showa Shell, which has carried out the installation of all the fixtures, equipment and photovoltaic panels.
It also signed a SAR5.4 billion contract with an unnamed local firm to boost power generation at its tenth station in the capital Riyadh. The deal will boost the station's power generation by 1200 megawatts.
--By Summer Said, Dow Jones Newswires; +966-546-842373; summer.said@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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29-10-11 1516GMT
