Consortium partners GE Energy and Iberdrola Ingenieria y Construccion are to build a combined cycle power plant that will boost Algeria’s installed generating capacity by around 18 per cent.

The 1200 MW combined cycle power plant will be built in El-Tarf province, 700 km east of Algiers, for Shariket Karhaba Koudiet Eddraouch Spa, an electricity company owned by Algerian energy majors Sonelgaz and Sonatrach. It will feature GE’s F-class gas turbine technology.

GE says its portion of the contract it worth EUR635 million. The company has supplied around 70 per cent of the gas turbines currently operating in Algeria, and is in the process of signing a contractual services agreement to provide maintenance and parts for the new facility for 20 years.

The Koudiet Eddraouch power plant will be one of the largest combined cycle power plants in the region. Electricity demand is growing at approximately seven per cent per year in Algeria, and the country’s power requirements will reach 14 000 MW by 2010, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mining.