Oman appoints consultancies for electricity spot market

28 January 2016

Technical and legal consultants have been hired

Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has appointed technical and legal advisers for its plans to establish a spot market for electricity trading in the sultanate.

Finland’s Poyry has been appointed as technical adviser while multinational law firm Dentons has been appointed as legal adviser.

The advisers will play a key role in developing a framework for the planned creation of an electricity spot market in Oman to facilitate the trading of electricity.

OPWP has set a target of introducing the spot market in 2019-20. MEED first reported in October 2014 that the sultanate was planning to implement a spot market for electricity pricing by 2020.

Under the plans, OPWP will remain the single offtaker for electricity and will take on an additional role as market operator. The spot market is planned to increase competition and allow producers to sell excess, older or uncontracted capacity to OPWP. It is unclear how much extra capacity the new market mechanisms will provide.

The introduction of a spot market would assist in the future trading of energy and capacity within the GCC. Oman joined the GCC Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) in late 2014.

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