Jordan opens independent power plant

King Abdullah II of Jordan on Monday opened the country's first independent power provider, a joint American-Japanese investment worth $300 million.

The plant, which is constructed over 200 dunums, or 187,860 sq m, in Al Manakher area, some 30 kilometers to the east of the Jordanian capital of Amman, has a total generation capacity of 370 megawatts (MW).

The project is implemented for a period of 25 years by AES Jordan PSC, which is a company owned by the US-based AES Oasis Ltd and Japanese company Mitsui and Co Ltd.

Fares Hammad, an engineer at the plant called the Amman East Power Project, said the facility runs on natural gas imported from Egypt and it can run on diesel.

In 2003, Egypt and Jordan opened a gas pipeline under which the latter receives about one billion cubic meters of Egyptian natural gas at preferential prices for the generation of power.

According to Jordan's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, 80 of the country's electricity is generated by using natural gas.

Jordan's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaldoun Quteisaht said the plant's capacity constitutes about 18 percent of Jordan's need of electricity, adding that the project will help address Jordan's surging demand of power.

Demand on electricity in Jordan increases by about 7.5 percent in average annually, according to the ministry.