Consultants are preparing to submit bids for the engineering consultancy role on a planned desalination plant at Jebel Ali in Dubai.

The Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) had invited consultants to submit bids for the engineering consultancy role by 27 April, but the deadline was subsequently extended until 25 May.

The desalination plant will be a reverse osmosis (RO) facility.

The sharp rise in water demand in Dubai the period 2005-08 led the government to invest heavily in new desalination capacity. By 2011, installed capacity had reached 470MIGD, more than double the 2006 total, and considerably more than total demand of 276MIGD. As a result of the major capacity expansion in this period, no further installed capacity has been installed since.

Peak demand for water increased to 316MIGD in 2014, up 7 per cent on the 296MIGD demand recorded in 2013.

The Federal Electricity & Water Authority (Fewa), utility provider for the UAE’s northern emirates, is also pushing ahead with plans to build a new desalination plant.

MEED reported in early May that Fewa had invited developers to submit prequalification entries by 11 June for the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) facility.

The planned 45 million-imperial-gallon-a-day (MIGD) plant will be located in the northern area of the Umm Al-Quwain emirate, adjacent to the border with Ras al-Khaimah.

Under the IWP, Fewa will appoint a developer to form a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) to enter into a long-term water purchase agreement (WPA) and a power supply agreement. Fewa will be the offtaker for all of the water produced from the facility.