The consortium led by Japan’s Marubeni submitted the lowest tariff prices for the power and water components of the Mirfa independent water and power project (IWPP).

The Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (Adwea) received bids from six consortiums for the IWPP scheme on 6 March. The consortiums all submitted prices for a 1,600MW capacity power plant and a 52.5 million gallon-a-day (g/d) reverse-osmosis desalination plant.

The Japanese-led consortium submitted a tariff price of AED0.127 ($0.035) for a kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity generation and AED12.2 ($3.3) for every thousand gallons of water. The Marubeni consortium consists of France’s Alstom and South Korea’s Samsung Engineering as engineering, procurement and construction contractors and Spain’s Acciona Agua as the seawater reverse-osmosis (SWRO) contractor.

The prices for the other five consortiums, listed by lead developer, are:

• GDF Suez (France): AED0.13 a kWh and AED14.5 for thousand gallons of water
• EDF (France): AED0.156 a kWh and AED13.6 for thousand gallons of water
• Sumitomo Corporation (Japan): AED0.137 a kWh and AED19.6 for thousand gallons of water
• Sembcorp (Singapore): AED0.149 a kWh and AED12.6 for thousand gallons of water
• Acwa  Power (Saudi Arabia): AED0.149 a kWh and AED12.9 for thousand gallons of water

The winning bidder will take a 40 per cent stake in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the IWPP, which will have a capacity of 1,500MW of power and 53 million gallons a day (g/d) of water. Adwea will hold a 60 per cent stake in the project.

The project will comprise several parts. The developer will own, develop, finance, construct, operate and maintain a greenfield power plant together with the reverse-osmosis desalination plant.

In addition to the greenfield work, the developer will be responsible for taking over certain existing assets of Al-Mirfa Power Company. It will also install four existing open-cycle gas turbines, each with a capacity of about 100MW.

The Federal Electricity & Water Authority (Fewa) purchased the turbines from the US’ GE in February 2005 before they were transported to Mirfa in 2009. The SPV will be responsible for integrating three 7.5 million g/d desalination units, which were installed by Italy’s Fisia Italimpianti, into the new plant.

The project will be built at Mirfa, a site located around 120 kilometres from Abu Dhabi. It will be built within Adwea’s existing power and desalination complex. Adwea is responsible for decommissioning and demolishing its existing assets at the Mirfa site. Power from the project will be bought by Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company (Adwec) under a long-term power and water purchase agreement. Adwec will supply the project with gas feedstock.