SEOUL, Mar. 17, 2009 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Korea Electric Power Corp (NYSE:KEP) (KEPCO), South Korea's state-run electricity company, said Tuesday that it has been selected as the prime bidder for a power plant construction in western Saudi Arabia.

The company said that in a consortium with Saudi-Arabia's ACWA Power International, it has been chosen as a preferred bidder by Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), and plans to sign a formal deal with SEC in the near future.

The project to build the 1,200-megawatt thermal power plant, to be built in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia by April 2013, will cost the company around 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, according to KEPCO.

The consortium will hold the plant under operation for 20 years after construction, KEPCO said.