Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has invited companies to submit bids for the advisory services contract on its first independent power project (IPP).

The IPP will be a clean coal-fired plant and will be located at Hassyan, which was the proposed site for the emirate’s first gas-fired IPP. Dewa received bids for the $1.3bn gas-fired facility in December 2011, but announced it was putting the scheme on hold in April 2012, just as the preferred bidder was due to be announced.

The utility provider said it was delaying the project due to success in boosting power production in existing plants through improving efficiency, which meant it did not need to develop a new plant. The utility did not provide a timeframe for how long it would defer the development of the Hassyan facility.

MEED reported in July 2012 that Dewa was planning to develop a 1,800-3,000MW coal-fired power plant at Hassyan. At the time, the provider would not comment on whether the scheme would be tendered as an IPP or as a traditional engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.

Dubai has a long-term strategy to diversify its energy mix and clean coal is to account for 12 per cent of total power generation by 2030. Dewa commissioned a study to evaluate the use of clean coal to generate electricity in the emirate in May 2011.