Construction work has started on a AED719m ($196m) independent water project (IWP) in the UAE emirate of Ras al-Khaimah.

MEED reported in August 2015 that local private utility company Utico had signed a joint venture contract with Spain’s Grupo Cobra to develop the 22 million imperial gallon a day (MIGD) reverse osmosis plant.

Richard Menezes, managing director of Utico, told MEED that work had started and that the plant would be fully completed by the end of 2017.

The joint venture has created a project company called Al-Hamra Water Company to develop the scheme, with Utico holding a 60 per cent share and Grupo Cobra holding the remaining 40 per cent. The 22 million-imperial-gallon-a-day (MIGD) reverse osmosis (RO) plant will be partly powered by a proposed 40MW solar plant, which Utico is also planning to develop.

The project is planned to be partly powered by a solar independent power project (IPP). Final agreements for the proposed solar IPP will not be signed until a decision on the capacity of the solar plant has been decided.

The contract for the IWP is different from the vast majority of IWP agreements in the region, due to the fact that there is no government stakeholder in the project.

“It is a uniquely structured and designed project,” Menezes told MEED at the signing of the agreement with Grupo Cobra in Dubai on 6 August 2015.

Utico, which has its own electricity and water networks, will directly bill consumers for the water. But Menezes says the state utility for the northern emirates, Federal Electricity & Water Authority (Fewa), will eventually be the offtaker for some of the production.

“The [UAE] Ministry of Public Works signed a contract with utilities for offtake agreements,” Menezes said. “Our network is linked to Fewa’s, and under the contract, Fewa can offtake up to 90MIGD. At the moment, about 9-10MIGD goes to Fewa, so there is plenty of capacity left [under the agreement].”