The award includes expansion of the Rabigh power plant and other power transmission and generation projects, the company said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.

The plant, Rabigh 6 would have a capacity of 2,400 to 2,800 megawatts, about 12 to 14 percent of the 20,000 megawatts the SEC plans to add through 2018, at an estimated total cost of $80 billion.

SEC would finance the projects through loans and its own resources, it said in the statement without providing further details.

South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction submitted the lowest bid of SR12.7 billion to build the plant in Rabigh on the western coast of Saudi Arabia, industry sources said last week.

Power demand in the world's largest oil exporter is rising at an annual eight percent and is expected to triple to 121,000 megawatts from 40,000 megawatts currently, government officials say.

In April, SEC secured a SR15 billion ($4 billion) soft loan from the government.

The bulk of the loan will finance the construction of the plant in Rabigh where the giant King Abdullah Economic City is under construction.

SEC's Board of Directors also approved a number of 380KV power transmission lines with a total length of 886 kilometers as well as three 380KV transformer stations in Al-Jouf, Hail and the Eastern Province with a total capacity of 2,500 megawatts.

Saleh Al-Awaji, who chaired the board, said a number of important electricity projects would enter service this year, including the 10th power plant in Riyadh with a capacity of 880 megawatts and the newly expanded Wadi Al-Dawasser plant with a capacity of 110 megawatts, Duba plant, Qassim-2 and Rabigh-6 plants.

He said 18 new transformer stations have also entered service this year, including the one related to Riyadh-9 plant, in addition to the completion of transmission lines linking the southern and western regions.

"The SEC has completed recently two power linkage projects between the central and western regions and western and southern regions. With the completion of these two projects we have linked about 95 percent of the Kingdom's power network," Al-Awaji said.

He said the company would continue its efforts to complete the linkage of the remaining five percent of electricity networks in the country in order to link all regions with a single power grid within five years.

"The board meeting discussed the company's performance during the summer season in all parts of the country and discussed ways of further improving services," Al-Awaji said.

Meanwhile, Shuqaiq Water and Electricity Company (SqWEC) has added 680MWh of electricity to serve the provinces of Asir and Jazan, the company's Chairman Madani A. Alagi said.

"We were able to begin commercial operation of the project COD2 of the second electricity production unit with a capacity of 340 MWh, 36 days prior to the targeted deadline," Alagi said.

Three months ago the COD1 of the first electricity production unit, also with a capacity of 340 MWh, was completed. "This brings the plant production of electricity to-date to a total of 680 MWh after the addition of the second unit to the production capacity," Alagi noted, pointing out that the third and final electricity production unit will come into operation by the end of 2010 bringing the plant to full production with a capacity of 850 MWh.

ACWA Power International is the lead developer of the project, which has overseen the construction work since it began in March 2007. This is the fourth of its seven IWPP/IPP/IWSP projects in the Kingdom. Once the projects are completed a total production capacity of 2.3 million cubic meters of desalinated water per day and 6,200 MWh of electricity would be available.

Shuqaiq Water and Electricity Company was established as a closed joint stock company where the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) owns 32 percent and the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) owns 8 percent with the remaining share belonging to ACWA Power International, Gulf Investment Corporation and Mitsubishi Corp.