Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) on 6 March opened bids from six international consortia that have qualified for the Al-Mirfa independent water and power project (IWPP). ADWEA Director-General ‘Abd Allah al-Nu’aimi says the agency expects to sign a power and water purchase agreement with the winning bidder on 13 July, and to sign further contracts and agreements for the project on 15 September.

The Al-Mirfa IWPP will generate 1.6gw and desalinate 52.5mn gal/day of water and will be developed under a build-own-operate (BOO) contract. ADWEA says the plant will be the tenth power and water plant to be privatized in the emirate, as part of a program to meet increasing demand for electricity and water. ADWEA will have 60% of the project, with the winning bidder taking 40%. The six bidding consortia are understood to be led by Japan’s Sumitomo, South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries, Singapore’s Sembcorp, France’s EDF, Japan’s Marubeni and France’s GDF Suez. (CONTINUED - 477 WORDS)