370 extra megawatts of power to be generated in Kingdom — NEPCO

AMMAN — The Kingdom’s is expected to generate an additional 370 megawatts of electricity before the end of the year, National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) Production Planning Director Amin Zaghal said on Saturday.

Zaghal told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that the increase in power capacity is due to the renovation of Al Hussein Thermal Power Station and the installation of a new “complex unit” at the Samra Electric Power Generating Company. 

The Kingdom’s current power capacity stands at 3,800 megawatts registering a maximum load of 2,250 megawatts in December, with an annual 7 per cent growth in demand for power.

The renovation of Al Hussein station is expected to provide 300 megawatts of electricity in the fourth quarter of this year, increasing to 485 megawatts in mid 2018, Zaghal said.

As for Samra, the NEPCO official said that the company will contribute 70 megawatts of electricity by next September, Petra reported.

In December, 2015, the government and Saudi company ACWA Power signed a $500 million investment agreement to revamp Al Hussein Thermal Power Station at a capacity of 485 megawatts .

Under the agreement, ACWA Power, a key investor in the Central Electricity Generating Company since 2010, will renovate the station at the same site.

The project is expected to provide the Kingdom’s power grid with around 12 per cent of its needs.

ACWA Power and the NEPCO last week signed an electricity purchasing agreement that includes the development, financing, construction, ownership and operation of a new 61.3 megawatt peak (MWp) solar energy project in Risha, in eastern Jordan.

Under the agreement, ACWA Power will sell electricity to NEPCO for a “record-low” tariff of JD0.042 per kWh, “the lowest tariff for solar energy ever presented for a Jordan-based project”.