GE Wins $500 Million Contracts to Expand Saudi Electricity’s (NG) Power Plants

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GE will supply gas-turbine technology and services for the projects, which will meet half of Saudi Electricity’s targeted increase in annual output, the U.S. company said in an e-mailed statement today.

“These fast-tracked plant expansions are designed to meet peak summer demands,” Saudi Electricity’s Chief Executive Officer Ali al-Barrak said in the statement.

Saudi Arabia will need to spend $100 billion in this decade to boost power-generation capacity by 50 percent, the country’s Deputy Minister for Electricity at the Ministry of Water Saleh al-Awaji said on March 28. Domestic electricity demand has grown at a rate of about 6 percent a year, according to the statement.

Plant expansions at Qurayyah, Qassim and near the cities of Riyadh and Tabouk will add 1,680 megawatts of power to the national grid, more than half of Saudi Electricity’s planned annual increase of 3,000 megawatts, the statement said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-02/saudi-electricity-selects-ge-for-power-plant-expansion-projects.html