Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has awarded contracts to the local Arabian Bemco to extend the PP10 and Qurayyah power plants in the kingdom.

The PP10 and Qurayyah projects are currently under execution by Arabian Bemco with capacities of 3,000MW and 3,800MW respectively.

Under the expansion, Arabian Bemco will add 700MW to PP10 bringing total generation capacity to 3,700MW and 800MW to the combined cycle project bringing total generation capacity to 4,600MW.

The two contracts, which are worth about $1bn in total, were signed on 27 December.

The PP10 extension is expected to be completed by 2012 and Qurayyah combined cycle extension by 2013