Abu Dhabi utility developing water plant in Fujairah

08 November 2010

Adwea planning more reverse osmosis plants

Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (Adwea) is developing a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant in Fujairah as part of the utility’s plan to develop more desalination plants separate from power generation.

We have already developed two RO plants, and we are also building a new plant in Fujairah

Abdulla Saif al-Nuaimi, Adwea

“We have already developed two RO plants, and we are also building a new plant in Fujairah,” said Abdulla Saif al-Nuaimi, director of privatisation at Adwea on 8 November at the MEED Abu Dhabi Conference 2010.

The Fujairah plant will have a capacity of 35 million gallons a day. Al-Nuaimi says the decision to locate the plant in Fujairah is because it is the only emirate of the UAE that is not on the Gulf, so the water is better for desalination schemes.

Adwea holds a 60 per cent stake in Fujairah’s independent water and power project (IWPP), which Singapore’s Sembcorp brought online in 2009. The project has a capacity of 225MW of power and 456,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of water.

In the past, Adwea has developed all its projects with both a power and water element. Al-Nuaimi says if the experiments with the three RO plants are successful, new projects may be developed as separate desalination and power schemes. The utility is set to develop its first independent power project (IPP) at Shuweihat in Abu Dhabi.

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