Saudi Arabia’s Water & Electricity Company (WEC) has invited developers to submit expressions of interest (EOI) in the contract to develop the Jubail 3 independent water and power project (IWPP).

The Jubail 3 project will be one of the largest cogeneration plants in the kingdom, with a planned power generation capacity of 3,000MW and a desalination capacity of 1.17 billion cubic metres a day (cm/d). The desalination component of the plant will be a hybrid system, with 60 per cent of the capacity to be produced through reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology, with the remaining 40 per cent to be produced through a thermal desalination process.

The project will be developed under a 25-year concession agreement, with the selected developer to sign a power and water purchase agreement (PWPA) with WEC, which will be the offtaker for all of the produced power and desalinated water. WEC’s obligations under the PWPA will be supported by a credit guarantee from the Saudi government.

The Jubail 3 plant will be developed 18km south of the Jubail Industrial City on the Arabian Gulf coast, and located adjacent to the existing Jubail phase 1 and 2 plants and Jubail RO plant.

The lead and financial adviser for the IWP is the local Banque Saudi Fransi. The client has appointed Germany’s Fichtner Engineering and Consulting as the technical adviser, the UK’s DLA Piper as legal adviser and the UK’s Alderbrook as co-financial adviser.

Riyadh is increasing the role of private investment in the power and desalination sectors as part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030. It is also preparing to privatise existing assets.

In February, WEC issued the request for proposals (RFP) for the planned 600,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) Rabigh 3 independent water project (IWP). The nine prequalified firms have until 1 July to submit proposals for the Rabigh 3 project.