Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power has signed the contract with Jordan’s National Electricity Production Company (Nepco) to develop a 485MW independent power project (IPP).

MEED recently reported that Acwa was due to sign the contract before the end of 2015. According to sources close to the scheme, the Saudi developer has signed the power purchase agreement (PPA) and government guarantee agreements with Nepco.

The PPA is for a period of 25 years. The scheduled commissioning date for the plant is May 2018, with parties seeking to reach financial close in April or May 2016.

The power project is known as IPP5. The country’s first four IPPs have been developed by the local/Japanese AES/Mitsui and South Korea’s Kepco, with each group developing two facilities each. The IPP5 will replace the Hussein power plant in the port of Aqaba.

China’s Sepco 3 will provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for the project, according to sources close to the scheme.

The project will be Acwa’s first major thermal power project in Jordan. In June 2011, the Saudi firm acquired the majority stake in Jordan’s Central Electricity Generating Company (Cegco), Jordan’s main producer of electricity.

MEED recently reported that a consortium led by Spain’s TSK and the UAE’s Enviromena Power Systems had been awarded a contract to build a 103MW solar power plant in Jordan, as part of the kingdom’s efforts to boost capacity to meet rising demand.

The $128m photovoltaic (PV) solar plant will be located in the southern region of Jordan’s Al-Queira region.

The solar project is part of Jordan’s plans to add 600MW of additional solar power to the grid in 2016.