Emirates Sembcorp Water & Power Company has shortlisted four bidders to build a 30-35 million gallon-a-day desalination facility in Fujairah.

Emirates Sembcorp, which is owned by Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea) and Singapore’s Sembcorp, has shortlisted Spain’s Abeima and Acciona along with Degremont and Veolia from France. The companies submitted the following bids in November 2011 (all figures in AED per thousand gallons):

• Abeima (Spain): 8.58 ($2.34)
• Acciona (Spain): 9.36
• Degremont (France): 10.30
• Veolia (France): 10.89
• GE Water (US): 10.99
• Cadagua (Spain): 11.49

The winning bidder will design, build and operate the reverse-osmosis seawater desalination project next to the existing Fujairah F1 independent water and power project (IWPP). The contract will run for seven years post-construction.

The expansion project has faced several delays. A source at Emirates Sembcorp says the technical evaluation process took longer than expected and this impacted heavily on the bid schedule.

The existing Fujairah F1 IWPP reached financial close in June 2004 and was completed in March 2009. The facility currently has a capacity of 785MW of power and 100 million gallons a day of water.

Construction of another IWPP also located in the emirate, Fujairah F2 was inaugurated on 9 May 2011.