ABIDJAN, Dec 16 (Reuters) - An Ivorian subsidiary of French energy firm Vinci Energies and a Moroccan technology company will build high voltage power lines to support a Chinese-built gas and steam power plant, the plant said on Friday.
Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower, has emerged from a decade of crisis as one of Africa's economic stars but rapid growth has strained its electricity grid.
Demand for power in Ivory Coast is rising by about 10 percent per year and the government is seeking investment to double output to 4,000 MW by 2020. Ivory Coast exports power to Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana, Mali, Togo and Liberia.
China Energy Engineering Corporation 3996.HK is leading construction of the Songon power station, whose two gas turbines and one steam turbine will produce 372 MW of power.
China Construction Bank CCBHB.AX is financing 75 percent of the 500 million euro ($521 million) price tag.
"The consortium Vinci Energies-CI and Cegelec have been retained for this construction following a restricted tender," Venance Guessennd, the general director of Star Energie 2073, the company running the plant, told reporters in the commercial capital of Abidjan.
The total cost of that job is about 95 million euros, financed by the West African Development Bank and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, he said.
($1 = 0.9601 euros)