Five in the frame for SEC's PP11

SEC is planning to add 25,000MW to the grid by 2018.

Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has announced that five consortiums have submitted bids to build, own and operate the US$3.2 billion Power Plant 11 (PP11) near Riyadh.

The cost of the project has risen from an estimated $2 billion, as the capacity has risen from 1,200MW to 2,000MW.

SEC chief executive Ali Al Barrak told Reuters that the plant would be operational by mid-2013.

PP11 is just the latest in a massive series of power plants located in the Central Operating Area, which already have a total capacity of 10,000MW.

Work on SEC’s $3 billion 2,000MW PP10 plant is well under way, and is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2011. A consortium consisting of Arabian Bemco Contracting, Nespak, Almabani and GE won that deal in 2008, and it seems a safe bet that some or all members of the consortium will be bidding for PP11 as well.

When PP10 and PP11 are both online, the Riyadh site will have a total capacity of 14,000MW.

To give an indication of the size of this group of power stations, altogether they will have the same electricity generating capacity as the $19.6 billion Itaipu Dam hydroelectricity project in Brazil.

The project with the largest electricity generating capacity in the world will be the Three Gorges dam hydroelectric development in China, will have a total capacity of 22,500MW when it is fully operational in 2011

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