The US’ GE has been awarded a $23m contract to provide 24 drives for two major power plants in Saudi Arabia.

The US firm’s Power Conversion business will supply 24 18MW variable speed drives (VSD) for the Jeddah South and Shuqaiq power plants. GE was awarded the contract to provide the drive components by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), which is building the two plants. The plants are owned by the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC).

HHI was awarded the $3.3bn contract to build the 2,640MW Shuqaiq steam power plant in Saudi Arabia in August 2013. The South Korean contractor will build the steam plant on a turnkey basis, which will include engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), testing and commissioning. The plant will be located on the Red Sea coast, about 580 kilometres south of Jeddah, and is scheduled to be commissioned in 2017.

HHI was awarded the $3.2bn EPC contract to build the 2,640MW Jeddah South plant in October 2012.