Kepco finishes $2.5 billion plant in Saudi Arabia
From right to left in the front row, Ali Al Barrak, former CEO of Saudi Electricity Company, Saleh Bin Hussein Al Awaji, Saudi’s deputy minister for electricity, Kepco CEO Cho Hwan-eik, Abdulla Al-Shehri, governor for regulatory affairs of the Electricity & Cogeneration Regulatory Authority, and Kim Jin-soo, Korean ambassador to Saudi Arabia pose after a ceremony for the completion of the Kepco’s power plant in Saudi Arabia on Thursday. Provided by the company
The state-run power provider said the 1,204-megawatt power plant is the largest it has built overseas and is worth about $2.5 billion. It took five years to build and is located in Rabigh, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Jeddah.
Kepco and the Arabian Company for Water and Power development, known as Acwa Power, jointly invested in the project.
The Korean power generator received the order in March 2009 from the Saudi Electricity Company.
The project was meaningful to Kepco because it was the first of its projects that was financed by Islamic banks that were mostly not affected by the 2008 global financial crisis. The Kepco and Acwa Power consortium borrowed a total of $1.9 billion and spent $2.5 billion won on the project.
Kepco will run the plant for the next 20 years and expects about $5.5 billion profits.
The plant is capable of generating power for up to 1.2 million people.
In total, Kepco is currently generating 3,750 megawatts of power in the Middle East, including 946 megawatts in Jordan, and 1,600 megawatts in the United Arab Emirates.
BY song su-hyun [ssh@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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