Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) is planning to issue tender documents for the planned coal-fired independent power project (IPP) by the end of October.

The client received prequalification documents from developers in June for the sultanate’s first coal-fired power plant, and is currently evaluating proposals before finalising the prequalification list. According to sources close to the project, tender documents will be issued to the prequalifiers in the next three months.

MEED reported in July that OPWP had appointed Indian/US firm Synergy Consulting as financial adviser for its planned 1,200MW coal-fired IPP.

Synergy will join Finland’s Poyry, technical adviser, and UK’s Gowling WLG, legal adviser, to complete the advisory team. The UK’s EY had previously been appointed to assist OPWP with the feasibility study for the IPP.

OPWP had previously considered developing coal-fired power plants in the sultanate.

In 2009, an advisory team of WorleyParsons of Australia and Netherlands-headquartered KPMG was selected for a proposed 1,000MW coal-fired independent water and power project (IWPP) at Duqm. Although coal was ranked the following year by the UK’s Mott MacDonald as the most economic feedstock available, the coal-fired option was dropped on environmental grounds.

The state utility company’s decision to look at coal again may have been influenced by the successful tendering and award of the contract for the GCC’s first coal-fired power plant in Dubai in 2016.

It is being developed under the IPP model, with the developer consortium having signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Dubai Electricity & Water authority (Dewa) for a 2,400MW facility.