State desalination provider Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) has retendered the contract to build nine satellite desalination plants at various locations around Saudi Arabia.

SWCC received proposals from at least six bidders in July, but has since decided to retender the project. The client has set a new submission date for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) proposals of 13 November.

The combined capacity of the satellite desalination plants is expected to be 240,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), and will cost more than SR2bn ($530m).

The satellite desalination programme is part of the kingdom’s efforts to increase capacity, and meet the growing demand for water from residential and industrial users. The majority of the projects planned will be developed under various public-private partnership (PPP) models, with the Water & Electricity Company (WEC) as the client.

MEED recently reported that WEC was preparing to select the preferred bidder for the planned 600,000 cm/d Rabigh 3 independent water project (IWP).