Kuwait’s planned Khirran South power and water project will now be developed as an independent power project (IPP) as opposed to a government-procured project.

The Electricity and Water Minstry originally planned to tender a project with a capacity of 500MW of power and 50 million gallons a day (g/d) of water as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract (MEED 28:3:11).

The original scheme was to comprise two steam turbines and the water facility will use multi-stage flash (MSF) technology. Contractors were to be prequalified in September, which would be followed by an invitation to bid in November. Tenders for several additional 500MW phases were to follow.

As the facility will now be built by the private sector, the Partnerships Technical Bureau (PTB) will award a build-own-transfer contract for the project instead of the Ministry of Electricity and Water. The proposed size of the plant has been increased to 2,500MW of water and 125g/d.

According to Kuwaiti law, all new power projects larger than 500MW must be tendered as IPPs instead of government procurement EPC deals.