Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW) has extended the bid submission date for the contracts to convert open-cycle gas turbine units at its Subiya and Al-Zour South power stations to combined-cycle facilities.

The submission date for the Subiya contract is now 6 September and the submission date for the Al-Zoor South plant has been pushed back until 11 October. The original submission date for both projects was 2 August.

The projects will boost the capacity of each plant by about 250MW. The Subiya and Al-Zour South open-cycle power plants were both commissioned in the first half of 2015.

The conversion projects are part of the MEW’s fast-track programme to boost the country’s generation capacity as demand for power continues to grow at a rapid rate. The MEW estimates that an additional 10,500MW will be required to meet the projected 2022 peak load.

The country’s first independent water and power project (IWPP) is currently under construction and began supplying electricity to the grid in May. The plant will be fully commissioned by the end of 2016.

Kuwait’s public private partnership (PPP) body, Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP), is planning to issue tender documents for the next two IWPPs, Al-Zour North 2 and Al-Khiran 1, in July. The body received prequalification entries in April.