KEC Jordan

completed

Kingdom Electricity Company (KEC), a consortium of investors from the Arabian Gulf countries and Jordan, is finalizing the acquisition of the Government of Jordan’s (GoJ) stake in the Electricity Distribution Company (EDCO), covering the East and South of Jordan and the Jordan Valley area, and the Irbid District Electricity Company (IDECO), covering the North of Jordan. KEC was selected as the preferred bidder through the GoJ’s privatization and sector reform process. The total project cost is estimated at $119 million for KEC to acquire 100% of EDCO and 55.4% of IDECO. After the completion of the acquisition, KEC will own 100% of EDCO, which will own 55.4% of IDECO as a subsidiary. IFC is considering to provide a corporate loan of up to JD 35 million (equivalent to $49 million) to EDCO to support portions of the acquisition cost. Under the new ownership after the acquisition, and with the implementation of the capital expenditure (CAPEX) annually, the project is expected to upgrade its distribution network and improve network availability and reliability to meet the growing demand of electricity in the service areas of the two companies. There will also be a new regulatory regime that focuses the licensees on improving the overall quality the electricity service both from a technical as well as a customer service points of view in addition to focusing them on reducing the system losses altogether.Brief description EDCO as of year end 2007:EDCO supplies electricity to about 155,000 retail customers, representing around 13% of the total consumers within Jordan. It covers an area of about 69,000 km2 representing about 77% of the area of Jordan, mostly in the desert. EDCO has 3,271 km Medium Voltage (33kV, 11kV and 6.6kV) overhead distribution lines, 4,456 km Low Voltage (400V) overhead distribution lines and 1,193 km underground cables (33kV, 11kV and 0.4kV). It has 2,995 substations (33kV/11kV, 33kV/6.6kV, 33kV/0.4kV, 11kV/6.6kV, and 11kV/0.4kV). It purchased 2,023 GWh of electricity from the grid and sold 1,776 GWh of electricity to customers. The sales increased by 94% since 2001 (917 GWh). The maximum load was 327MW. It has 1,136 employees.Brief description of IDECO as of year end 2007:IDECO supplies electricity to about 283,000 retail customers, representing around 22% of the total consumers within Jordan. It covers an area of about 23,000 km2 representing about 26% of the area of Jordan, mostly in rural areas. IDECO has 3,206 km Medium Voltage (33kV, 11kV and 6.6kV) overhead distribution lines, 10,899 km Low Voltage (400V) overhead distribution lines and 991 km underground cables (33kV, 11kV and 0.4kV). It has 2,996 substations (33kV/11kV, 33kV/0.4kV, 11kV,6.6kV/0.4kV or 6.6kV/0.4kV). It purchased 1,615 GWh of electricity from the grid and sold 1,463 GWh of electricity to customers. The sales increased by 11.35% from 2006. The maximum load was 280MW. It has 1,036 employees.