Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has appointed the Indian/US firm Synergy Consulting as financial advisor for its planned 1,200MW coal-fired independent power project (IPP).

Developers submitted prequalification entries in June for the IPP, which will be the first coal-fired plant in the sultanate.

Synergy will join Finland’s Poyry, technical adviser, and UK’s Gowling WLG, legal adviser, to complete the advisory team. The UK’s EY had previously been appointed to assist OPWP with the feasibility study for the IPP.

OPWP had previously considered developing coal-fired power plants in the sultanate.

In 2009, an advisory team of WorleyParsons of Australia and Netherlands-headquartered KPMG was selected for a proposed 1,000MW coal-fired independent water and power project (IWPP) at Duqm. Although coal was ranked the following year by the UK’s Mott MacDonald as the most economic feedstock available, the coal-fired option was dropped on environmental grounds.

The state utility company’s decision to look at coal again may have been influenced by the successful tendering and award of the contract for the GCC’s first coal-fired power plant in Dubai in 2016.

It is being developed under the IPP model, with the developer consortium having signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Dubai Electricity & Water authority (Dewa) for a 2,400MW facility.

Fewa, the utility provider for the Northern Emirates in the UAE, is also planning to develop a large coal-fired power plant.