Kuwait’s Partnerships Technical Bureau has invited companies to submit expressions of interest (EoI) for the contract to develop the planned Al-Abdaliyah integrated solar combined-cycle (ISCC) project.

Companies have until 23 July to submit and EOI for the ISCC project. The ISCC, which will run on a combination of solar power and gas, will have a capacity of 280MW. The plant will contain a 60MW solar component. The project will be located in Abdaliyah in south west Kuwait, and will be located on an area of 2 square kilometres.

The PTB, in collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Electricity (MEW), will oversee the creation of a joint stock Kuwaiti project company, which will build, operate and transfer (BOT) the project for an investment period of 25 years. The project company will sign an Energy Conversion and Power Purchase Agreement (ECPA) with the MEW.

The UK’s HSBC was appointed as financial consultant for the project in September 2013.

The ISCC project is one of a number of renewable energy projects that Kuwait is pushing ahead with as part of efforts to diversify its power generation sources.

In March, Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) approved the award of the KD139.1m ($494.3m) contract to Spain’s Cobra to build the planned 50MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant for Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (Kisr).

Cobra submitted the fourth-lowest price for the tender when six groups submitted bids in November 2013. The CSP plant will be located at Shagaya Renewable Energy Park, which is being developed by Kisr with assistance from MEW.

Kisr has also received bids for two other renewable energy schemes at the Shagaya park, including a 10MW photovoltaic (PV) solar plant and a 10MW wind farm.

The MEW estimates that Kuwait will face a demand growth of 6 per cent a year for electricity up until 2020. To meet the estimated demand growth and allow for the decommissioning of old plants, MEW estimates that it will require an additional 10,500MW of new power capacity during this period.