The Oman Power & Water Procurement (OPWP) company has received prequalification entries from eight companies for the contract to develop the Salalah 2 independent power project (IPP) project in Oman.

The eight international developers submitted their prequalification documents in the first week of February for the power project, which is expected to have a capacity of 230-400MW and is due to be commissioned in 2016.

The eight companies that submitted entries are:

• Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia)
• EDF International (France)
• GDF Suez Energy International ( France)
• Korea Electric (South Korea)
• Mitsui (Japan)
• Marubeni Corporation (Japan)
• Mapna Group (Iran)
• Sojitz Corporation (Japan)

In July 2012, OPWP appointed the UK’s PricewaterhouseCoopers financial adviser for the project, the UK’s DLA Piper as legal adviser and Germany’s Fichtner as technical adviser. The project was originally planned as an IWPP.

The Salalah 2 IPP will be developed adjacent to the existing power station of Dhofar Power Company (DPC), which is majority owned by the local  Electricity Holding Company.

According to data from OPWP, peak power demand in the Salalah-area system is anticipated to rise by 10 per cent annually from 348MW in 2011 to 690MW in 2018.