The US’ GE has been awarded a $700m contract from Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) to supply turbines and generators for power plants.

The firm will provide 12 combined-cycle gas turbines, four steam turbines and 16 generators, which will be used for SEC’s planned PP13 and PP14 facilities. PP13 will be located next to SEC’s PP11 and PP12 plants at Dhurma, near Riyadh, and PP14 will be located next to PP10. The PP13 and PP14 facilities will have a combined generating capacity of about 3,800MW.

GE’s deal also includes two contractual service agreements, one for each site, which cover maintenance of the units for a fixed 8-year period. The firm will begin shipping the equipment to the kingdom in early 2015.

In SEC’s 2012 report, the state utility provider predicted the kingdom will see peak electricity demand rise to 85,000MW in 2020 and 120,000MW by 2030, from the current 51,900MW.

SEC awarded an estimated SR4.7bn ($1.3bn) contract to the local Arabian Bemco to build the 2,175MW PP12 in April 2012.

Arabian Bemco submitted the lowest bid for the deal in March, following a technical evaluation at the end of 2011. The company offered a price of SR2,371.8 per kW. Contractors were asked to submit offers for a project with a capacity of 1,745MW plus 25 per cent (1,745-2,181MW). Five other bids fell in close range.

Arabian Bemco will build PP12 at a site located 100 kilometres west of Riyadh city and adjacent to the PP11 combined-cycle power plant, which is now under construction and will include a 380kV substation. It is set to be completed by 2015.

Unlike PP12, PP11 is being built as an independent power project (IPP) by the UK/French GDF Suez with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) as the EPC contractor. The facility will have a capacity of 1,729MW and is scheduled for completion in 2013.