The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has awarded Italy’s CESI a contract to develop a high-voltage district current (HVDC) link between Saudi Arabia’s Central and Western regions.

CESI will assist the SEC in developing the HVDC between Riyadh and Mecca, which will cover the central and western regions of the kingdom. The 800-kilometre link will connect the Dharma and Bahra stations, boosting the generation capacity of local distribution networks, which frequently experience power disruptions.

The HVDC link will enable multiple users to have a power-carrying capacity of more than 3,000MW. Riyadh will develop an additional 30,000MW of generation capacity as part of plans to double Saudi Arabia’s capacity by 2030 to meet the power demands of a growing population.

In October, SEC awarded the local Saudi Services for Electro Mechanic Works a SR316m ($84.3m) contract to build an overhead transmission line at Yanbu, located on the western coast of the kingdom. The state electricity provider also recently awarded a SR416.2m contract to the local Al-Toukhi Company for Industry & Trading build a substation at Madain, Saudi Arabia.

The project will involve building a 380kV substation for the Maidan area. The work will include providing and assembling power transformers, low-voltage AC and DC equipment, associated facilities and related civil works.