Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has received six bids, including four by companies from South Korea, to build a 2,400MW power plant at Jeddah South.

The following companies have submitted bids:

• Daelim (South Korea)
• Samsung C&T (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)
• Alstom (France)
• Siemens (Germany)

Bids were entered on 17 April following multiple bid deadline extensions. SEC will evaluate technical proposals before inviting financial bids. The winning bidder will build the project on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis within 47 months of signing.

SEC adjusted the scope of the Jeddah South project in 2011. Under the current plan, the project will comprise four conventional thermal generating units, each with a minimum capacity of 600MW. The overall capacity will total a minimum of 2,400MW and bidders were allowed to submit proposals for projects up to 2,640MW (10 per cent upwards flexibility). The contractor will also be responsible for constructing a 380kV substation to serve the project.

The Jeddah South project is part of an ambitious programme to add generating capacity to the grid to keep pace with rapidly rising demand for power in the kingdom. By 2021, peak demand is forecast to reach 87.76GW. SEC is planning to have 131.63GW of capacity commissioned by the same year.

SEC currently has 50.9GW of power generating capacity online. This includes 14GW of steam powered capacity, 6GW of combined cycle power, 21.8GW of simple-cycle power and 175MW of diesel-power. Non-SEC power generating capacity adds a further 8.9GW.