China's Shanghai Elec set to win Namibia power plant contract

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Namibia has picked China's Shanghai Electric as the preferred bidder to build a $1.2 billion gas-fired power plant, the head of the country's power utility said on Wednesday. The Kudu project in south-western Namibia will pump gas from the Kudu field about 170 kilometres (100 miles) offshore to a combined cycle gas power plant. The plant, which is expected to have a total capacity of up to 1,050 megawatts (MW), will be connected to the Namibian and South African electricity grids for local and regional use. Paulinus Shilamba, managing director of NamPower, said in an email response to questions that Germany's Siemens AG had been picked as the supplier of generators and turbines. A consortium of Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Sumitomo and Posco Energy [POSCOP.UL] had been selected as a "reserve bidder", meaning it would be turned to if negotiations with Shanghai Electric failed, Shilamba said. Namibia has been working on projects to boost supplies of electricity in the country, one of the world's top uranium producers. Its current installed capacity is 507 MW, below a demand of 534 MW. Demand is expected to rise to 800 MW by 2018.