Contractors have been invited to submit bids for a 1,050MW integrated solar and combined cycle (ISCC) power plant at the Waad al-Shamal industrial development in the north of Saudi Arabia.

MEED reported in February that the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) was planning to tender a 1,000MW combined-cycle gas turbine power plant at Saudi Arabian Mining Company’s (Maaden’s) Waad al-Shamal industrial development, the $6bn phosphate mining development.

However, since then, the client has decided to integrate a 50MW solar component into the plans for the plant, according to sources bidding on the project. The plant will use concentrated solar power technology (CSP), with the client allowing the bidder to select whether to utilise parabolic trough, power tower or linear fresnel technology.

Contractors have been invited to submit bids for the ISCC power plant in the second week of October.

The Waad al-Shamal plant is the second ISCC power scheme that SEC is planning to build in the kingdom. The utility is also planning to develop a 550MW ISCC plant at Duba. The Duba 1 ISCC is planned to have a capacity of 550MW, and is scheduled for commissioning in 2017.

The Duba 1 plant was originally planned to be developed as an independent power project (IPP), with SEC having invited developers in January to submit expressions of interest (EOIs) to develop the project. However, the utility has subsequently decided to tender the scheme as a standard engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.

The power projects are part of the kingdom’s efforts to boost generating capacity in the coming years to cope with the expected rise in demand. In its 2012 annual report, SEC forecasts that peak demand will grow from the 51,900MW recorded in 2012 to 85,000MW in 2020 and 120,000MW by 2030.