Manama builds power plants to meet increasing demand

07 November 2008
Electricity authority to raise capacity by 4,800MW and 100 million g/d.

Bahrain is to increase its power and water production capacity by 4,800MW and 100 million gallons a day (g/d) by 2015, according to Abdulmajeed Alawadhi, chief executive officer of the Electricity & Water Authority (EWA).

Four new plants will be brought on line in Addur at two-three year intervals to meet power and water demand up to 2020.

The first will be provided by the Addur 1 independent water and power project (IWPP).

Of the plant’s 1,200MW power capacity, 600MW is scheduled to come on line in 2010, with the remaining 600MW to follow a year later.

The scheme will also produce 48 million g/d a day of desalinated water, starting in 2011.

The project was awarded to a team of Belgium’s Suez Energy International and Kuwait’s Gulf Investment Corporation in August.

The developers are trying to put financing in place for the project.

They have secured underwriting commitments from Standard Chartered, Calyon and Mashreq.

EWA is already planning its next major project, Addur 2. This will be tendered by 2010 and is due for completion in 2012/13. Addur 2 will be an independent power project (IPP) with capacity of 1,200MW.

The authority will return to the IWPP model for Addur 3, which will have capacity of 1,200MW and 52 million g/d.

The targeted operation date is 2015. This will be followed by a fourth phase IPP plant, which will add another 1,200MW.

EWA is planning more power and water infrastructure expansion up to 2030 and has selected a site for this.

Projects will be built in Sitra, in the northeast of the island. An existing power and water plant at the site should be decommissioned by 2020, making way for new electricity and water projects. It has yet to be decided how much capacity will be built at the site .

“We haven’t done any final projections yet,” said Alawadhi at the Saudi Water & Power Forum in Jeddah in early November.

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