ABU DHABI/KHOBAR,Jan 14 (Reuters) - A consortium led by ACWA Power International is the preferred bidder for the Rabigh 2 independent power project (IPP) in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) said on its website.

After evaluating five proposals, SEC has chosen the consortium of ACWA Power International, Samsung C&T and MENA Fund, ahead of an Abu Dhabi National Energy Company TAQA.AD led group which made the lowest bid for the project.

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SEC initially invited bids to build a power plant at Rabigh with a capacity of 1,700-2,100 MW. SEC said in October that TAQA had made the lowest cost proposal. But industry sources said SEC then asked TAQA to resubmit its bid for a 1,800 MW plant.

"When the SEC requested a new bid based on a lower capacity power plant at the same tariff, this changed the economics for us and we viewed the short time frame for the new bid as unrealistic," a spokesman for TAQA said.

The estimated $2.5 billion and 1,800 MW Rabigh 2 is a heavy fuel oil power plant, the fourth project in SEC's IPP programme. It is located 175 km north of Jeddah on the west coast of the Kingdom.

On Sunday, the Saudi state-owned fund Sanabil and the Saudi Public Pension Agency acquired a 19.4 percent stake in ACWA Power International.

(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho and Reem Shamseddine in Khobar, editing by Daniel Fineren)

((stanley.carvalho@thomsonreuters.com)(+ 9712 6444431)(Reuters Messaging: stanley.carvalho.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: SAUDI POWER/ACWA