Saudi Electricity (SEC) is looking for companies to build and operate a 1,700-megawatt (MW) independent power plant (IPP) running on fuel oil, the state-controlled utility said on Monday.

Expressions of interest in running the plant at Rabigh on the West coast of the world's largest oil exporting country should be submitted by March 21, SEC said in a statement.

The Rabigh IPP2 plant will use fuel oil and is the fourth of five planned IPPs that will add a total of around 11,000 MW of power generation capacity. The other three are under construction and include the 1,200 MW Rabigh IPP1.

SEC will buy electricity from the new company under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

In September last year, SEC signed a deal with a consortium led by Saudi Acwa Power Projects and including South Korea's Samsung C&T to build the 4,000-MW gas fired power plant, the third IPP project.

Saudi Electricity has an $80-billion investment plan to increase its power generation capacity by 30,000 MW by 2018 to meet power demand that is rising by around 8 per cent a year.-Reuters