At the second time of asking, Israel’s state utility IEC has agreed to the IS9bn ($2.4bn) sale of the country’s largest gas fired power plant, the 1.68GW Eshkol plant in Ashdod, to a private consortium led by Dalia Power. This follows the cancellation of an initial tender award in July after Dalia was unable to raise the IS12.4bn ($3.5bn) that it bid (MEES, 21 July).
This prompted IEC to relaunch the tender, which only garnered the solitary bid from Dalia. The Eshkol plant is the fourth power plant sold off by IEC as part of attempts to diversify the country’s power suppliers. The sale of a fifth plant, the 428MW Reading in Tel Aviv, has been indefinitely delayed and is currently pending a government decision . (CONTINUED - 129 WORDS)