State-controlled Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) will sign a SR10.7 billion ($2.85 billion) power deal with a consortium that includes South Korea's Samsung for construction of the Qurayyah plant, it said on Monday.

Al-Qurayyah, south of the eastern city of Khobar, would have a power generation capacity of around 3900 megawatts (MW), SEC said, adding it plans to sign the deal on Wednesday.

The plant is the third of the six planned Independent Power Projects (PPP, which involves the private sector and that would add around 11,000 megawatts of capacity in the kingdom.

Saudi Electricity will buy all the power produced by the plant from the winning consortium, which will run it on a build-own-operate basis.

The consortium also includes Acwa Power Projects Ltd and Mena Fund. The plant is expected to start production before the summer of 2014, SEC said. – Reuters