Oman Power and Water Company (OPWP) has prequalified six developers to bid to build a 1,500MW independent power project (IPP) at Sur.

The following companies have been prequalified:

• Marubeni Corporation (Japan)
• Mitsui & Company (Japan)
• AES (US)
• Sembcorp Utilities (Singapore)
• Enka (Turkey)
• Siemens (Germany)

Developers submitted requests for qualification in October. Several companies submitted bids, but were not prequalified, including Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power International, along with Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) and Procomon & Asociados.

Prequalified companies have until 7 March to submit final bids. The winning bidder will bring 400MW of power capacity online by the summer of 2013 to help the country meet its peak demand during the hot months. Full commissioning is scheduled by the following summer.

OPWP had originally intended to build an independent water and power project (IWPP) at Al-Ghubrah to take advantage of existing infrastructure in the area and allow the older plant at the site to be retired. Due to environmental impact issues associated with the Al-Ghubrah site and its proximity to residential areas in Muscat, OPWP decided to cancel the Al-Ghubrah IWPP in favour of a facility at Sur.

Sur is located south of the capital on the coastline and offers a large area ready for construction, as well as access to an existing pipeline that feeds the Oman LNG plant operating on the outskirts of the site. Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC) is already implementing projects to reinforce the transmission system around Sur, which will allow power to be exported to the Main Interconnected System, the grid that serves most of Oman.

The advisory team selected to work on the shelved Al-Ghubrah plant was transferred to the Sur IPP in July. The team comprises the UK’s Ernst & Young, DLA Piper, British Power International and Glen House Capital Strategies.