RABAT: Morocco will increase its current 6 million tonnes a year of coal imports by 3.5 million tonnes by 2017, to meet demand from a 1,320 megawatt power plant being built by Safi Energy Company, the government said on Friday.

Safi Energy Company (SEC) is a joint venture of GDF Suez , Morocco's royal holding Nareva and Japan's Mitsui .

Morocco is investing 4.7 billion dirhams ($550 million) to build a coal port in the southern city of Safi, where the power plant will be located, to import 7 million tonnes of coal annually, the government said in a statement.

The port will supply the SEC plant with 3.5 million tonnes annually.

A further 3.5 million tonnes a year will feed a second plant with the same capacity of 1,320 MW, to be built when SEC start operating in 2017.

GDF Suez and Nareva won the 25 billion dirhams SEC tender in 2010, Mitsui has joined the joint venture in 2013 while the construction, worth $1.77 billion, was awarded by the company to South Korea's Daewoo Engineering earlier this year.

GDF, Nareva and Mitsui will invest 30 pct, while they expect bank loans to cover the rest, which would be raised by the start of 2014, a statement from the company said earlier this month. SEC has signed a 30-year power purchase agreement with Morocco's state power utility ONEE.

Morocco's current 6 million tonnes a year imports supply its three coal-fired plants, which are produce 26.7 percent of total Moroccan generating capacity.

Morocco wants to meet local consumption using thermal power, and export renewable energy to the European Union.