The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a $95mn loan for the construction of a 485 MW modern gas-fired power plant in Jordan costing $460mn.
The loan - billed as reducing emissions by the bank -- will be provided to a Jordanian firm that is 60%-owned by the Saudi developer ACWA Power -- which a few days ago committed to building a giant coal-fired plant in Dubai.
The new Zarqa combined-cycle gas turbine plant in Jordan, 40km northeast of the capital Amman, will replace an obsolete oil-fired plant at the same site and be twice as efficient and cut emissions. It is needed to stabilise the Jordanian grid as older plants are decommissioned and as demand increases.
ACWA signed a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to supply Jordan’s state National Electric Power Company from the plant in January 2016. It said the cost to develop it is $460mn and that it can run on diesel as a back-up fuel. China’s Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation III is the main contractor for the project, with Jordan’s Central Electricity Generating Company a sub-contractor.
EBRD says that in Jordan it has co-financed six solar power plants (totaling 164 MW), an 82 MW wind power plant, and the IPP4 240 MW thermal power plant – its first investment in 2012 in the kingdom.
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