Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has awarded a SR241 million ($64 million) contract to install a power transmission line north of Riyadh as part of plans to meet surging power demand.

SEC, the Gulf's largest power utility by market value, said it awarded the contract to a consortium that include India's KEC International and Al-Sharif Group.

The state-controlled company did not disclose the share of each company in the contract, which covers installing a 380 kilovolt (KV) transmission line and would be completed in 30 months.

Saudi Arabia is facing a rapid demand for power, growing at around 7-8 per cent per year.

Saudi Electricity, which produces around 37,000 megawatts, plans to spend $80 billion to add a total of 20,000 MW through 2018, plus $20 billion on Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects  to add more than 10,000 MW of capacity.

Around $46 billion of the total investment would be spent on power generation, $30 billion on transmission and $20 billion on distribution. – Reuters