South Korea’s Samsung Engineering has confirmed that its consortium has been awarded the main construction contract to build the 3,100MW Yanbu 3 power plant.

The Samsung-led consortium, which includes China’s Shanghai Electric and the local Al-Toukhi, has been awarded a deal with an estimated value of $1.5bn for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the $3bn power and desalination plant.

Samsung was competing against China’s Sepco III Electric Power Corporation for the contract. The client for the project, Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), had received bids from four groups in November 2011 for the EPC deal and reduced the shortlist to two competing bidders earlier in 2012.

In mid-November, South Korea’s Doosan was awarded the estimated $1bn contract to build the desalination component of the plant, which will have a capacity of 550,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d).