Kuwait picks GE for $2.7 bln power plant- paper

KUWAIT Aug 26 (Reuters) - Kuwait's central tenders committee has chosen U.S. General Electric Co (GE.N) to build a 2,000 megawatt power plant, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

General Electric, which was the preferred choice of Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity and Water, submitted a bid for 770 million dinars ($2.7 billion) to build the Subbiya plant, daily al-Watan said in an unsourced report.

Officials at the electricity ministry could not be reached for comment.

In April, Kuwait issued a new tender to build turbines for the plant in the north of the country, which is due to come on stream in 2011, saying it expected the cost to be far less than earlier estimates in excess of 700 million dinars. [ID:nLM654812]

Apart from General Electric, Kuwait had pre-qualified Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE), Japan's Mitsui & Co (8031.T) and Marubeni Corporation (8002.T), Spain's Iberdrola Ingenieria Y Construccion (IBE.MC), and Canada's SNC-Lavalin Limited (SNC.TO).

Kuwait, which has one of the world's highest per capita power consumption rates, has said it plans to boost power capacity to around 16,000 megawatts from 10,000 MW by 2012 to meet soaring demand. (Reporting by Rania El Gamal, editing by Will Waterman) ($1=.2869 Kuwaiti Dinar)