Bidding consortiums are putting the finishing touches to submissions for Dubai’s Hassyan coal-fired independent power project (IPP).

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) will receive proposals for the 1,200MW coal-fired plant on 30 April, having extended the submission date on a number of occasions. The original submission date was 26 November 2014.

According to sources involved in the bidding process, up to four consortiums are expected to submit tariff bids. The consortiums will include Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power, South Korea’s Kepco and Japan’s Marubeni.

In September 2014, Dewa announced it had invited eight consortiums to bid for the Hassyan IPP. The utility had received 17 prequalification entries in May.

In February, the utility appointed a consortium led by the UK’s EY as adviser for the project. Dubai has set a commissioning date of March 2020 for the first 600MW unit of the coal plant, with the second coming onstream a year later.

Dewa is also pushing ahead with the second and third phases of its Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum Solar Park as an IPP.

In January, the utility doubled the capacity of the second phase of the solar park to 200MW, and selected a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power to develop the IPP. The project is scheduled to be operational by 2017.