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GE wins $500 mln contracts from Saudi Electricity | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, (Reuters) – State utility company Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) has awarded General Electric contracts worth more than $500 million to help SEC add 1,680 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity, the U.S. firm said on Monday.

GE is the largest provider of turbines for SEC.

Under the deal, GE would supply equipment and provide technology for four projects which include a 600 MW expansion of the Qurayyah power plant on the East coast of Saudi Arabia, a 480 MW expansion of the PP-10 power plant near Riyadh, a 480 MW expansion at Qassim and a 120 MW expansion of a power facility near Tabouk, GE said in the statement.

Saudi-based Arabian Bemco Contracting Co will conduct the engineering procurement and construction (EPC) work for the expansion at Qurrayah, Qassim and PP10 while Al Toukhi Construction Group would provide EPC services for the facility near Tabouk, GE said.

Last October, GE won a contract worth $700 million to supply equipment and services to a new SEC plant.

“These fast-tracked plant expansions are designed to meet peak summer demand,” Ali Saleh Al Barrak, SEC’s chief executive, said in a statement.

Demand for power in the kingdom is forecast to triple to 120 gigawatts by 2030, government officials say.

It is expected to grow 8 to 9 percent this year compared with around 10 percent a year earlier, Barrak told Reuters in a recent interview.

SEC has said it planned to invest $80 billion in the 10 years to 2018 to boost capacity to at least 80,000 megawatts by 2020, from an installed capacity of 50,000 megawatts now, to meet rising power demand.