Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) has extended the bid submission date for the contract to expand the existing K Station power plant at Jebel Ali.

The initial bid deadline for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract had been set for 21 July. Contractors now have until 25 August to submit prices for the project.

The third-phase expansion of the facility will increase its capacity by about 500MW. It is understood the work involves a simple-cycle upgrade.

MEED reported in April 2015 that Dewa had issued a tender for the technical and economic feasibility study for the third-phase expansion. The K Station plant currently has a capacity of 880MW and 60 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD) of desalinated water.

The upgrade is the latest of several expansion schemes that Dewa is undertaking. In February 2015, Dewa awarded Germany’s Siemens a AED1.47bn ($400m) contract to expand Dubai’s existing 2,030MW M station power plant in Jebel Ali by 600MW.

In addition to boosting capacity, the scheme will increase the plant’s thermal efficiency from 82.4 per cent to 85.8 per cent.

On 1 May, Dewa received bids for the engineering consultancy contract for the expansion of the Aweer power station.

Consultancies submitted proposals for the fourth-phase expansion of Aweer Power Station H. The current station has a total capacity of 1,846MW, which was developed over three phases between 1998 and 2009.

Peak power demand growth in Dubai reached 5.5 per cent in 2014, and with consumption set to grow between 4.5 per cent and 5 per cent a year in the run-up to hosting the Expo event in 2020, the government is pushing ahead with an ambitious capacity expansion programme.