Kuwait invites groups to prequalify for IWPPs

08 February 2015

Progress with projects stalled as country’s public-private partnership body was restructured

The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP), formerly the Partnerships Technical Bureau (PTB), has invited developers to prequalify for the country’s next two independent water and power projects (IWPPs).

KAPP has invited interested groups to submit prequalification entries by 2 April for both the Al-Zour North 2 IWPP and the Al-Khairan 1 IWPP.

The Al-Zour North 2 IWPP will have a power capacity of at least 1,500MW, to be provided through combined-cycle gas turbines, and a desalination capacity of 102 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD).

The Al-Khairan 1 IWPP is planned to have the same capacity as the Al-Zour North plant, but will run on low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) as its primary fuel. The plant will be designed so that it can accommodate crude oil, gas-oil and natural gas as back up fuels. The desalination capacity of the plant is scheduled to be 125MIGD.

Progress with both projects had stalled as a result of the restructuring of the PTB and the creation of KAPP. Companies had been invited to submit expressions of interest (EOI) for both projects in 2013. The restructuring of Kuwait’s PPP body, which happened in parallel with the amendments of the country’s PPP and IWPP laws, was implemented in response to the slow procurement process for the country’s first PPP project, the Al-Zour North 1 IWPP.

In December 2013, the final project agreements for the much delayed Al-Zour North IWPP were signed. The project company set up to develop the IWPP, which is 40 per cent owned by a consortium of the UK/French GDF Suez, Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation and local Abdullah Hama al-Sagar & Brothers, awarded South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and France’s Sidem the $1.4bn EPC contract to build the plant.

HHI will build the gas-fired 1,500MW, combined-cycle power plant, while Sidem will build the 107 million gallon-a-day desalination component of the first Al-Zour project.

The country’s IWPP programme is part of the government’s efforts to meet the rapid demand growth for both power and water. Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) forecasts that peak power demand will climb from 12,800MW in 2013 to 14,000MW in 2015 and to 22,500MW by 2022. To meet the demand and build in a reserve margin of about 10 per cent, the ministry estimates that available conventional power capacity will have to reach 25,500MW by 2022, an 80 per cent growth in capacity.

The ministry forecasts that an additional 270 MIGD of desalination capacity is required to meet the estimated demand by 2020.

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