Arabian Bemco Contracting Co. said Saturday its bid of $1.434 billion was the lowest for the expansion of a 3,400-megawatt (MW) power plant near Riyadh. The new combined cycle project would add 1,300 MW to the existing facility owned by Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC), Bemco said in a statement. When completed in 2015, it will be the world's largest combined cycle plant, the company added. SEC, which has a current installed power capacity of 50,000 MW, plans to boost capacity to at least 80,000 MW by 2020 to meet power demand, growing by almost 8 percent annually. Bemco said it submitted its offers on Aug. 2 and competed against Spanish Tecnicas Reunidas ($1.481 billion); South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) ($1.485 billion); Japan's Marubeni with South Korea's Hyundai E&C ($1.648); Saudi National Contracting Co. (NCC) in a consortium with Black and Veatch Corp. ($1.998 billion); and South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries ($2.592 billion).
