Oman Power & Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has invited companies to bid for a contract to install a series of temporary power generation units across the sultanate.

The diesel-fired units are to be built next to existing substations at key locations and will have a capacity of around 600MW in total.

Power will feed into the Main Interconnected System (MIS), the grid network that serves most of the country.

Companies have been asked to respond to the request for proposals by 27 September. The units are to be online by 2011.

As temporary power generation units, the facilities will assist Oman in meeting its immediate electricity needs before being decommissioned.

Oman has a considerable pipeline of power generation projects that constitute its long term strategy.

Two new power projects at Barka and Sohar, both to be built by a consortium led by France’s GDF Suez, are part of this programme.

A further independent power project (IPP) is planned for a site at Sur. Oman’s tender board has is set to issue the request for qualification (RFQ) for the project shortly.

The country’s most pressing priority is to address its power shortfall in the short term. The temporary power generation tender is intended to tackle this issue.