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Several companies are preparing to bid for the contract to develop Qatar’s Facility E independent water and power producer (IWPP) project.

Qatar state utility General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) expects to receive proposals for the contract by 14 December.

"We hear that at least one consortium is being formed... others are preparing proposals but appear unsure if they will ultimately submit them or not," a source close to the project tells MEED. 

The Facility E IWPP scheme will have a power generation capacity of 2,300MW and a water desalination capacity of 100 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD).

Kahramaa received statements of qualifications (SOQs) from interested developers in July this year. Most utility developers that previously qualified to bid for the contract have submitted SOQs.

The contract to develop the Facility E IWPP was first tendered in 2019. The three teams that submitted bids for the contract in August 2020 were:   

• Engie (France) / Mitsui (Japan) / Yonden (Shikoku Electric, Japan)
• Sumitomo / Kansai Electric (Japan)
• Marubeni / Kyushu Electric (Japan)

The original plan for the Facility E IWPP was to have a power generation capacity of about 2,300MW and a desalination component of 100MIGD once fully operational.

However, the project owner revised the power plant design capacity to 2,600MW, for which it sought alternative prices from bidders. 

In January 2022, MEED reported that the technical and financial evaluation was under way for the single bid that Kahramaa received in November 2021 for the Facility E IWPP project.

The sole bidder for the contract was understood to be a team led by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, following the withdrawal from the bidding process of two consortiums, one led by French utility developer Engie and the other by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation.

Facility E is Qatar’s fifth IWPP scheme. Completed and operational IWPPs include three projects in Ras Laffan – known as facilities A, B and C – and Facility D in Umm al-Houl.

MEED understands that the new target commercial operation date for the Facility E IWPP project has been moved to 2027. 

The state utility's transaction advisory team includes UK-headquartered PwC and Clyde & Co as financial and legal advisers, respectively, led by Belgrade -headquartered Energoprojekt as technical adviser.

According to data from regional projects tracker MEED Projects, an estimated $129bn-worth of thermal, nuclear and renewable energy power generation plants are being planned and procured across the GCC states. Thermal power plants account for about one-third of the total.