Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) will install solar panels, with a capacity of up to 200MW, to power reservoirs and pumping stations on its Water Security Mega Reservoirs project, said Mohammed Salme al-Mansoori, technical affairs manager in Kahramaa’s water projects department, on the sidelines of MEED’s Qatar Projects conference in Doha on 11 March.

Kahramaa plans to issue tenders after the completion of construction work on the scheme.

Pipelines for the project are 20 per cent complete, earthworks have been carried out at reservoir sites, and contract awards for the main construction package were made in March.

The solar installations will power the water security project, freeing up capacity for other uses, and saves acquiring land for utility-scale solar schemes.

Kahramaa has selected four firms for the five main construction packages on its estimated $3bn Water Security Mega Reservoirs project.

Bids were submitted by contractors in September. Work on the five packages involves construction, and testing and commissioning of the reservoirs and associated infrastructure and control systems. The sites are Umm Birka, Umm Slal, Al-Thumama, Rawdhat Rashid and Abu Nakhla.

Contracts for the 200 kilometres of pipeline connecting the reservoirs to desalination plants and supply networks have already been awarded to the UAE’s Habtoor Leighton Group, local firm AlJaber Engineering, Chinese companies China Harbour Engineering and Sinohydro Group, and a joint venture of Lebanon’s CAT and the local Boom Construction.

The Water Security Mega Reservoirs scheme has been designed to provide seven days of strategic water storage within its network, which will shore up the country’s reserve water supplies to protect against any future disruptions in supply.

Each reservoir site will contain up to 10 reservoir modules, which could be the largest of their type in the world. The reservoirs and pipeline network, with associated pumping stations, are planned to store up to 15 million cubic metres of potable water. The project is set for completion in 2019.

The scheme will connect the desalination plants at Ras Laffan and Ras Abu Fontas, which will skirt the west side of Doha. The pipeline will also connect to five reservoirs on the outskirts of the capital, which will be linked by about 200km of large-diameter pipeline.

MEED recently reported that Japan’s Mitsubishi had been awarded a $500m contract to build the Ras Abu Fontas A3 desalination project, which is being developed by Qatar Electricity & Water Company (QEWC).