The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) has set a submission date of 17 January 2016 for firms to submit bids for the contract to develop the Al-Zour North 2 independent water and power project (IWPP).

MEED reported in August that seven groups had been prequalified to participate in the tender, and groups were invited to pick up tender documents for the deal.

The seven groups prequalified to participate in the bidding process are led by the following developers:

• Abengoa (Spain)
• Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia) / Al-Mulla (local)
• Kepco (South Korea)
• Marubeni (Japan) / Fouad al-Ghanim (local)
• Mitsubishi (Japan)
• Mitsui (Japan)
• Sumitomo (Japan) / Osaka Gas Company (Japan) / National Industries Holding Consortium (local)

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). As with the first phase, the phase 2 project will use natural gas as the main feedstock and gas oil will be provided by the Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW).

The Al-Zour North 2 scheme has fallen behind schedule, with developers invited to submit expressions of interest (EOIs) for the scheme in June 2013.

KAPP is also planning to progress with the Al-Khiran 1 IWPP, which will have the same generation capacity as the Al-Zour North 2 IWPP, but a slightly larger desalination capacity – 125 MIGD. Prequalification entries for the Al-Khiran project were received on the same day as the Al-Zour North 2 project, but it is believed that KAPP and the MEW will stagger the tendering process due to the large size of both projects.

KAPP has prequalified the same seven lead developers for the Al-Khiran IWPP.

Progress with both projects stalled as a result of the restructuring of KAPP’s predecessor, the Partnerships Technical Bureau (PTB). The restructuring, which happened in parallel with the amendments of the country’s public-private partnership (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.

The 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.