Mitsubishi the preferred bidder for Facility D

01 March 2015

Three bidders resubmitted final offers for Qatar independent water and power project in January

  • Japanese-led consortium was the lowest remaining bidder
  • Plant will have a power capacity of 2,280-2,520MW and desalination capacity of 123.5-136.5 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD) of water
  • Desalination component will consist of a mix of thermal and reverse osmosis (RO) technologies

Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has selected the consortium led by Japan’s Mitsubishi as the preferred bidder for Qatar’s next independent water and power project (IWPP), known as Facility D.

According to sources close to the project, the Mitsubishi consortium has been approved as preferred bidder and is in final negotiations before a formal contract award is made.

MEED reported in January that Kahramaa had asked the three remaining bidders, Mitsubishi, Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and UK/French GDF Suez Energy International, to resubmit final prices as part of the bidding process for the Facility D scheme. Kahramaa had received bids from four consortiums on 29 May. However, Japan’s Sumitomo, the low bidder for the project, was removed from the bidding process as a result of issues over the technical components of its bid. Mitsubishi, originally the second-lowest bidder, remained the lowest following the rebid in January.

The proposed IWPP is planned to be located in the Qatar Economic Zone (QEZ) near Mesaieed and will have a capacity of 2,280-2,520MW and 123.5-136.5 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD) of water. About 70-90 MIGD of the desalination capacity will be from multi-stage flash (MSF)/multi-effect distillation (MED) technology, with the remaining 40-60 MIGD coming from reverse osmosis (RO) technology, which has to date only been implemented on a small scale in the country.

Facility D is estimated to require $3bn-worth of investment, with a large proportion of this to be project financed by banks. It is thought government-backed export credit agencies (ECAs), such as Japan Bank for International Cooperation (Jbic), will have to play a role in raising the necessary funding.

Despite having recorded some of the highest demand growth for power and desalination in the Gulf in recent years, Qatar has been able to build up one of the highest reserve margins in the region. However, with consumption expected to continue to rise steeply as the state pushes ahead with its construction programme for hosting the 2022 Fifa football World Cup, Kahramaa is moving ahead with the Facility D project to ensure supply remains above demand.

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