South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has been awarded a $137m contract for the Assiut Power Plant in Egypt.

Doosan will supply a gas turbine and a power generator to Egypt’s state-owned suppliers Upper Egypt Electricity Production Company (UEEPC) and Cairo Electricity Production Company (CEPC).

The company received a notice of award from UEEPC and CEPC to build and test run a 650 megawatt (MW) turbine for the Assiut Power Plant and develop a generator for the Cairo West Power Plant by April 2020.

Earlier this year MEED reported that the local Orascom Construction has been awarded a $420m contract to convert the Assiut and West Damietta power plants to combined-cycle plants.

Orascom was one of the contractors on the first phase of both power plants, which were both completed in 2015. The Assiut plant currently has a capacity of 1,000MW, with the West Damietta plant currently producing up to 500MW.

The conversion to combined-cycle should boost the capacity of each plant by 50 per cent.

The conversion scheme is part of Cairo’s efforts to boost the country’s generating capacity as demand for electricity from the residential and industrial sectors continues to rise.