Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) has extended the submission date for contractors to submit bids for the deal to expand its M Station power plant at Jebel Ali.

Firms now have until 15 October to submit bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, which will involve expanding the existing 2,030MW facility by 600MW.

This is the second time that the deadline has been extended, with bids having been initially sought by 12 August. The bid deadline has been extended to allow companies more time to work on submissions.

The project is one of 1,300MW-worth of power generation schemes for which Dewa is planning to sign agreements by the end of 2014.

The authority is also planning to sign the power purchase agreements (PPAs) for both the 100MW second phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum Solar Park independent power project (IPP) and the proposed 600MW first phase of its 1,200MW Hassyan clean-coal fired IPP by the end of 2014, Dewa told MEED in March.

While Dubai has installed capacity of 9,700MW and was easily able to cope with the 6,500MW peak demand recorded in 2013, Dewa is pressing ahead with plans to boost the emirate’s capacity. Power consumption is expected to grow by 4.5-5 per cent a year up to the 2020 opening of the World Expo in Dubai.