Kuwait’s Electricity & Water Ministry has selected France’s Alstom and the local Al-Ghanim International to expand an existing power plant at Al-Zour South.

The partnership offered the cheapest bid of KD321m ($1.136bn) for the construction, operation and maintenance of the project, which works out at KD865.133 per KW. They were awarded preferred bidder status in December 2010.

The following companies also submitted bids in November:

• Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)/General Construction Group (local): KD1,081 a KW
• Hyundai Engineering & Consulting (South Korea)/Gulf United Construction Company (local): KD984.926 a KW
• Hanwha (South Korea)/Applied Consultants Office (local): KD909.636 a KW

Alstom and Al-Ghanim will convert phase two of the existing simple cycle gas-fired project into a combined cycle plant on a design, build and operate basis.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract covers the addition of a 400MW steam turbine to the existing 800MW plant at the site. The ministry unveiled plans to convert the existing project in 2010.

The companies have worked on previous phases of the project. Alstom won the €150m ($205m) contract to supply five gas turbines to the project in July 2007. Alghanim was the contractor on the 800MW Al-Zour South scheme. This project formed part of the ministry’s emergency power programme for 2008.