Japan’s Marubeni Corporation is no longer participating in the bidding process for the planned Salalah 2 independent power project (IPP) in Oman.

The Japanese developer was one of four groups that had been prequalified for the tender by Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP), but is no longer involved, according to various sources in the sultanate.

The reasons for Marubeni’s absence from the running for the IPP is unclear, with the client not having released any information on the Japanese firm’s withdrawal from the bidding list.

The remaining three groups in the bidding process for the IPP are:

• Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia)/Mitsui (Japan)
• EDF (France)
• Kepco (South Korea)/Sojitz (Japan)

The Salalah 2 IPP will have a capacity of between 300MW and 400MW, and is scheduled for commissioning in 2018.

In July 2012, the UK’s PwC was appointed as financial adviser on the project, with the UK’s DLA Piper as legal adviser and Germany’s Fichtner as technical adviser.

As part of the IPP, Dhofar Generating Company, currently part of Dhofar Power Company, will be privatised and sold to the winning bidder. Electricity generated from the plant will be purchased by OPWP on a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA).

The Salalah 2 IPP follows the commissioning of the Salalah independent water and power project (IWPP), which began commercial operation in May 2012. The gas-fired power plant has a total generation capacity of 445MW, while its seawater desalination component has a total water production capacity of 15 million gallons a day (g/d). Sembcorp Salalah Power & Water Company will provide power to OPWP for 15 years.

The projects are part of efforts to meet the increasing demand for power in the Salalah system, which currently has about 77,000 customers.

Peak demand in Salalah in 2013 reached 420MW, an increase of 8 per cent on the 389MW peak in 2012. The full commissioning of the Salalah 2 IWPP boosted the system’s contracted capacity to 718MW from the 372MW operational in 2011.