The Shuaiba Water and Electricity Company (SWEC) has signed an SR8.1 billion contract with a Siemens-led international consortium, making it the biggest independent water and power project (IWPP) worldwide. The contract was signed on behalf of the Abdullah Abunayyan Group, the developer of the Shuaiba Power Plant, by Mohammed Abunayyan, the chairman of the group, and Klaus Voges, group president, Siemens Power Generation. It will be the fourth high-capacity steam power plant that Siemens PG is constructing in the Kingdom. This was announced at a press conference here yesterday by Voges, according to a report published today by Arab News. The Shuaiba plant, 110 kilometers south of Jeddah, will be a state-of-the-art project to be equipped with one of the most sophisticated flue gas treatment systems that can eliminate 95 percent of sulfur dioxide emission - the benchmark set by Saudi Arabia to curb atmospheric pollution. The Siemens chief said that once the three units of the power plant are commissioned in late 2009, the plant will provide around 900 MW of power to the national grid. Additionally, the desalination plant supplied by Doosan will provide about 880,000 cubic meters of fresh water to Makkah, Jeddah, Taif and Al-Baha. The construction of the project's power and desalination plant is scheduled to commence in January 2006 and will take 3-1/2 years to complete and commence operations.
