Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) has tendered two financial advisory contracts for independent water and power projects (IWPPs).

They are the Rabigh 3 independent water project (IWP) and the Jubail IWPP.

The November deadline for consultants’ bids means SWCC could begin prequalifying developers in early 2017.

MEED reported in 2015 that the Rabigh 3 project will have a capacity of 600,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) and use reverse osmosis (RO) technology.

MEED also reported that the Jubail IWPP will have a capacity of 1.5 million cm/d and 3,000MW of power generation capacity. It is expected to use a mixture of RO and thermal desalination.

Rabigh 3 would be part of the first wave of IWPs in the kingdom, while no IWPP has been awarded since 2007. The IWP model was studied for the Jeddah 4 desalination plant, but it is now going ahead as an engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) plus finance deal.

SWCC is increasing the role of the private sector in desalination as part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030. It is also preparing to privatise existing assets. It also has a new governor, Ali al-Hazmi.

Saudi Electricity Company is also expected to return to the IPP model and unbundle and sell off four generating companies.