Dubai Municipality has received clarifications from bidders for the main construction contract for its planned waste-to-energy project.

MEED reported in September that the client had received fresh commercial bids from three of the original bidders, with a group led by Spain’s Abengoa emerging as the lowest bidder.

Abengoa replaced China’s Sepco 3 as the lowest bidder, with the Chinese firm having submitted the lowest bid earlier in the year.

MEED had reported in April that Sepco 3 was the lowest bidder with an original price of AED1.18bn ($322m). However, this was before technical evaluation and the resubmission of commercial proposals. The Abengoa/Elecnor group had been the second-lowest bidder under the initial bid round.

The latest ranking of bidders after the bid resubmission, which included engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) components, is:

Seven bids had been received during the initial bid round.

The waste-to-energy project is planned to have a minimum capacity of 2,000 tonnes a day (t/d) and produce 60MW. The plant will be located at the waste landfill site in Warsan.

According to sources close to the scheme, the client had considered using a build-own-transfer (BOT) public-private partnership (PPP) model to develop the plant, but has decided to tender the scheme using an EPC model with an additional five years of operation and maintenance (O&M).

Germany’s Fichtner is the technical adviser for the WTE project.

The project is in line with Dubai’s Strategic Plan 2021 and the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, both of which include a commitment to protect the environment and improve sustainability in the energy sectors. Dubai Municipality estimates the quantity of municipal solid wastes generated in the emirate in 2014 was 7,000 t/d.