The Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (Adwea) has set a March deadline for consortiums to submit bids for the Mirfa independent water & power project (IWPP).

The six prequalified consortiums now have until 6 March to submit bids for the IWPP scheme. Adwea had initially set a submission date of 13 February.

The prequalified consortiums are led by:

• Doosan Heavy Industries (South Korea)
• EDF (France)
• GDF Suez (France)
• Marubeni (Japan)
• Sembcorp (Singapore)
• Sumitomo Corporation (Japan)

The winning bidder will take a 40 per cent in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the IWPP, which will have a capacity of 1,500MW of power and 53MIGD 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 with a net capacity of 1,100MW together with a 30 million gallons a day (g/d) reverse-osmosis desalination plant.

In addition to the greenfield work, the developer will be responsible for taking over certain existing assets of 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.