Elsewedy and Sinohydro sign $2.2B EPC deal for Saudi Rabigh 2 expansion
The 2.3-gigawatt gas-fired plant is due for commercial operation in May 2029, with site work already past 39%.
Tariq Benali Tariq Benali covers business and corporate news across the UAE and MENA for Anecdoted, tracking the deals, leadership moves and regulatory shifts behind the region's companies. tariq@anecdoted.com
Elsewedy Electric PSP of Egypt and China's Sinohydro have signed a $2.2 billion engineering, procurement and construction contract for the Rabigh 2 independent power plant expansion in Saudi Arabia. The award covers a 2.3-gigawatt gas-fired combined-cycle facility, with commercial operation scheduled for May 2029.
The developer behind the project, Al Mourjan Two Electricity Company, is backed by ACWA Power and Saudi Energy. Under the EPC agreement, the joint venture takes on design and engineering, equipment procurement, construction, commissioning and performance testing, along with the plant's connection to the Saudi grid.
Equipment and construction status
Six Siemens gas turbines and two steam turbines will drive the plant, supported by heat recovery equipment meant to raise generation efficiency. Site work began under a limited notice to proceed issued before the contract was formally signed, and Elsewedy said overall progress has passed 39%.
Hesham Hegazy, chief executive of Elsewedy Electric PSP, said the contract showed the developer's confidence in the joint venture's ability to carry out power infrastructure at scale. ACWA Power chief executive Samir J. Serhan said the expansion would add flexible generation capacity to serve growing electricity demand, and stressed the need to complete the work safely and according to schedule.
Financing closed in October
The signing follows financial close on 1 October, when Al Mourjan Two secured about $2.58 billion in long-term financing, according to ACWA Power's stock exchange disclosure of 4 October. A group of Saudi, regional and international lenders supplied the debt on a 34-year tenor. Saudi National Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, HSBC and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China are among them.
ACWA Power and Saudi Energy each hold an equal 40% equity stake in the project.
Contracts and project history
In April 2026, the two developers signed a 31-year power purchase agreement with the Saudi Power Procurement Company covering the expansion. That agreement is valued at $3.1 billion, or SAR 11.5 billion, and includes contracted generation capacity of 2,313.5 megawatts.
The plant is designed so that carbon capture equipment can be added later. The announcement does not confirm that the technology sits inside the current construction scope. The development also involves enlarging a 380-kilovolt substation to support integration with the grid.
Commissioning and the start of electricity generation are targeted for the second quarter of 2029, which is the project's next commercial milestone.
The companies
Elsewedy Electric, the parent of Elsewedy Electric PSP, placed third in a 2026 ranking of Egypt's 50 most valuable companies. It also took 79th place in a 2025 list of the Middle East's 100 largest listed companies.
For the contractors, the deal is a large power-infrastructure assignment in the kingdom. For Saudi Arabia, the added dispatchable capacity is intended to firm up electricity supply as industrial and household demand grows.
