Kuwait’s Electricity and Water Ministry has invited re-bids for a 400/300kV transformer station at Al-Zour. According to the new schedule, bids are to be submitted by 4 December after a pre-tender meeting on 13 November.

The project was originally tendered in 2010. Bids were submitted by the following companies (MEED 3:11:10):

• Siemens (Germany) - KD67.2m ($240m)
• Middle East Electricity Company (Kuwait) - KD67.5m
• United Gulf Construction (Kuwait) - KD70m
• ABB (Switzerland) - KD74m
• Al-Ghanim International General Trading & Contracting (Kuwait)/Toshiba (Japan) - KD89m

The ministry decided to award the contract to Toshiba and Al-Ghanim as the companies completed the existing switchgear equipment at Al-Zour South and had significant experience in this area.

However, as the group offered the most expensive bid, Kuwait’s tender board CTC said that doing so would not be compliant with Kuwait’s tendering rules. An independent board was appointed to review the matter. The board found that the contract should be awarded to the lowest bidder instead.

The contract was offered to Siemens but due to rising equipment prices since the submissions of bids, the company withdrew its offer at the original price. Therefore, the ministry has decided to retender the contract. The same companies are eligible to bid in the retender.

The scope of the contract has been adjusted in the re-bid. According to the updated tender documents, the contract is for a transformer station to serve the first independent water and power project (IWPP) at Al-Zour North only. The project will have a capacity of 1,500MW of power and between 102-107 million gallons a day (g/d) of desalinated water and is currently in tendering.

The first Al-Zour IWPP will be followed by four more phases that will add 3,300MW of power capacity and 177MIGD of water capacity in total. The original contract was for a transformer station to serve all five phases of the project. Under the new arrangement, phases 2-5 of the Al Zour North IWPP will include transformer supply and installation work.