Bahrain to launch prequalification for IWPP

16 April 2017

First Al-Dur power and water project was commissioned in 2012

Bahrain’s Electricity & Water Authority (EWA) is planning to issue the request for qualification (RFQ) for the planned Al-Dur 2 independent water and power project (IWPP) in May.

According to sources close to the project, the client had been aiming to have completed prequalification and issued tender documents for the cogeneration plant before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, which begins in late May this year. However, this deadline has now been missed, and the client is preparing to invite developers to prequalify for the scheme in May.

The project is expected to have a capacity of 1,200-1,500MW and a desalination component of about 50 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD).

MEED reported in November that the EWA had appointed the Netherlands’ KPMG Fakhro as financial adviser for the Al-Dur 2 scheme.

KPMG was the low bidder out of three bids opened on 10 November, with a price of BD616,375 ($1.6m).

Peak demand growth for electricity in Bahrain reached 8.1 per cent in 2014, and was recorded at 3.5 per cent in 2015. The EWA is predicting consumption will continue to increase by an annual average of up to 6.4 per cent until 2020.

MEED reported in late 2016 that the developers of the previous Al-Dur IWPP, led by France’s Engie, were still in discussions with banks over refinancing the $2.2bn scheme. A $1.6bn eight-year hard mini-perm matures in 2017, but may be extended.

The $2.2bn IWPP has a generation capacity of 1,234MW and a desalination capacity of 181,700 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of water. It was fully commissioned in 2012, and has been developed under a 20-year power and water purchase agreement.

 

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