A consortium of Spain’s Abener and the United States’ GE submitted a SAR 4.5 billion bid to construct Saudi Arabia’s Waad al-Shamal power plant, the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) reported.

The bid is 3.6 percent lower than the second lowest bid, which was submitted by South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries, MEED reported.

The contract includes the engineering, procurement and construction of a 1,050 MW integrated solar and combined-cycle (ISCC) plant.

Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), which received the technical bids in mid-October, is developing the project along with Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Maaden), the owner and developer of the $ 7 billion Waad al-Shamal phosphate mining development.

The plant is the second ISCC facility that SEC is moving ahead with and is part of the kingdom’s efforts to increase its power generation capacity in the coming years to keep pace with the growing population and expanding industrial base.