Publish Date : 29-May-2013
With electricity demand continuing to grow by leaps and bounds, the government-run Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) yesterday announced the start of a process to procure the Sultanate’s largest ever Independent Power Project (IPP). Estimated to range between 2,500 and 3,000 MW in capacity, the proposed IPP will surpass in size the massive 2,000MW power project, currently under construction at Sur.
As a first step, OPWP — which has the sole mandate under the sector law to oversee the procurement of all new power and related water desalination capacity — has invited qualified consultancy firms to submit Expressions of Interest (EoIs) for contracts to provide advisory services linked to the implementation of the mammoth power scheme.
Interested firms have until June 6, 2013 to register their interest to participate in bids for separate contracts to provide Financial and Commercial Services, Technical Advisory Services, and Legal Advisory Services. Requests for Proposals (RfPs) pertaining to these contracts are likely to be floated within the next fortnight, it is learnt.
According to officials, it is unlikely that the new 2,500-3,000 MW capacity IPP will constitute a single plant built at one site. Rather, the project is more likely to take the shape of two or more plants located at multiple sites, but implemented by one developer against a license awarded via an international competitive tender. A case in point here is the successful implementation of the Barka 3 and Sohar 2 IPPs, each of 744 MW capacity, but built by a common developer. Moreover, the overall performance of relatively smaller plants, it is argued, is better than one large-capacity project.
As part of their early brief, the selected consultants will be required to identify suitable sites for the location of the IPP. Potential candidate sites are likely to include Barka and Sohar, both of which currently host large power generation and water desalination assets with enough space around to accommodate new generation capacity, it is learnt.
However, inland locations are not ruled out, particularly as the project is envisaged as a power-only scheme at this stage. Consequently, potential sites between Nizwa and Muscat will be taken into consideration as well, say officials.
In addition, OPWP and its advisors will also study opportunities for co-locating water desalination capacity alongside these plants. With advancements in reverse-osmosis technology, which tends to perform better when run on power compared to thermal plants, there is no longer a compelling need to co-locate desalination plants alongside power generation plants. Nevertheless, OPWP will examine the economic benefits of co-locating water and power in line with its obligations.
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