Total investment cost will be approximately $2bn and the plant will be at a greenfield site, 125km west of Riyadh. The electricity will be sold via a 20-year power purchase agreement to the Saudi Electricity Company. The partners bid with General Electric turbines and with Hyundai Heavy Industries as their contractor.
Dirk Beeuwsaert, executive vice president of GDF Suez, in charge of Energy Europe & International, said: “Having been appointed preferred bidder for the Riyadh IPP creates the opportunity for GDF Suez to pledge its continued commitment to the development of infrastructure for the future of Saudi Arabia.”
The other bidding consortiums were the UK’s International Power with Saudi Oger and Korea Electric Power; Tenaga Nasional of Malaysia, Sumitomo Corp and Saudi Binladin Group; Mitsubishi Corp, Acwa Power and Tokyo Electric Power; and Japan’s Marubeni with Kansai Electric and Masader.
Saudi Arabia has a current installed capacity of 29,000MW, which is planned to increase to 60,000MW by 2020. In October 2009, GDF Suez began commercial operation in the Kingdom of the Marafiq project, with its 2,750MW power capacity. This $3.4bn IWPP will be fully operational in the course of this year.
