Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) has selected a consortium of UK firms to advise on its Hassyan independent water and power project (IWPP).

The winning consortium is made up of the bank HSBC, engineering firm Mott MacDonald and law firm Clifford Chance. The advisers will help Dewa find funding for the project. This stage will likely take a long time as developers and financiers continue to seek assurances over credit risk.

The Hassyan IWPP will provide 1,500MW of power and 120 million gallons a day of water. Construction tenders are scheduled to be released by the end of 2010 and the project is expected to be commissioned in 2014.

The winning consortium was shortlisted for the contract in April, along with the following competing groups:

• Ernst & Young (UK), Royal Bank of Scotland (UK), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (UK) and Sargent & Lundy (US)
• KPMG (UK), WorleyParsons (Australia), First Economics (UK) and DLA Piper (UK)
• BNP Paribas (France), Chadbourne & Parke (US) and Lahmeyer (Germany)
• McKinsey & Company (US), Emirates NBD (UAE), Westney Consulting Group (US) and  Allen & Overy (UK)

All five groups made presentations to Dewa in April. A total of 14 firms submitted bids for the consultancy contract with Dewa.

The call for advisers followed Dewa’s decision in December 2009 to cancel plans to develop the Hassyan power and water project on a government-procurement basis.

The prospectus for Dewa’s recent $1bn to bond issue stated that the Dubai power provider had signed memorandum of understanding for three feasibility studies on the establishment of IWPPs in the emirate.