Morocco’s National Office of Electricity (ONE) and the Spanish ENDESA company have recently signed an agreement for the construction and operation of a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plant, representing a total investment of $250 million (€284 million).
Located 30 kilometers from the northern city of Tangiers, the Tahaddart plant will have a capacity of 384 Mega Watts (MW) and will burn natural gas supplied by ONE. ONE guarantees the purchase of the plant’s total capacity and energy output for a period of 20 years. The plant is expected to be commissioned in mid-2004.
Under the agreement, the Tahaddart plant will be run by a company in which ONE holds 48 percent pf the shares, ENDESA 32 percent and Siemens 20 percent. The latter will be in charge of the plant’s construction through a turnkey contract.
The agreement was signed by Morocco’s Prime Minister Abderrahman Al-Youssoufi and ENDESA Chairman Rodolfo Martín Villa. This project is in line with ENDESA’s strategy to consolidate its presence in northern Africa and more specifically in Morocco.
ENDESA has been awarded several contracts by ONE for the supply of energy over the past few years. Since 1997 it owns a 18 percent stake in Lyonnaise des Eaux-Casablanca (Lydec), which serves 600,000 electricity and 500,000 water customers in the Casablanca area.
The Moroccan energy market is considered to be of a high strategic interest due to its easy access to natural gas reserves, the perspectives for the coming liberalization of its electricity sector and the submarine interconnection with Spain with a capacity which is currently 700 MW but which will be enlarged to 1,400 MW. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
