A consortium led by a Saudi company bagged a SR6.8 billion contract from Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) to expand the Al-Qurayyah Combined Cycle Power Plant located in the Eastern Province. Dr. Saleh Bin Hussain Al-Awaji, deputy minister of Water and Electricity and also vice-president of SEC Board of Directors signed the contract in Riyadh Tuesday with Samaul A.T. Bakhsh, chairman Arabian Bemco Contracting Ltd, a Saudi company and Dong Soo Suh, executive vice-president, Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Ltd., a South Korean company. “The signing of the contract for Combined Cycle Extension will boost the Qurayyah Power Plant capacity to 3,200 MW, which in turn add to the national grid of Saudi Arabia,” said Emad Ghandourah, director, Projects Development, Arabian Bemco on the occasion. Arabian Bemco and Doosan Heavy Industries Ltd will convert the Al-Qurayyah simple cycle power plant into a combined cycle plant by adding five steam turbines to the facility with total capacity of 1,000 MW per year. This will bring total capacity of the plant to a total of 3,200 MW when the project is completed by early 2015. SEC said it would borrow from banks and use Islamic bond to help finance a SR6.88 billion ($1.84 billion) contract signed on Tuesday. “The financing of this project ... will use the firm's own resources and through lending from local banks which includes issuing Islamic Sukuk,” it said, without giving more details. The Saudi power demand is growing at an annual 8 percent, it added. SEC posted on Monday a 15.4 percent rise in third-quarter net profit, as seasonal peak demand increased revenue and new and more efficient plants helped it tame cost growth. Ghandourah said the SEC's strategic project at Qurayyah will add 1,300 MW to the national grid of Saudi Arabia, when the First Phase of the project is completed in early 2014. Upon its completion in early 2015, the project, which is being executed on a very tight schedule basis, will boost the Qurayyah Power Plant capacity by to 3,200 MW, he said. He added Arabian Bemco Construction Ltd and Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Ltd., emerged as the low bidder with SR6.8 billion ($1.85 billion) to the SEC commercial bids opened on June 13, 2009. Arabian Bemco earlier won the SR2.1 billion contract for the construction of the simple cycle plant in June 2007. The SR6.8 billion contract was an extension of the existing Qurayyah Power (Plant Stage C) for the conversion of Open Cycle Gas Turbines to Combined Cycle that will add five Steam Turbines and 15 Heat Recovery Steam Generators, he said. “This strategic project will add 1,300 MW on a yearly basis to the national grid of Saudi Arabia. Upon the full completion by February, 2015, as it being executed on a very tight schedule the project will add a total of 3,200 MW of electricity to Saudi Arabia's national grid,” said Ghandourah.
