Syria’s Public Establishment for Electrical Generation & Transfer (PEEGT) has selected the UK’s Allen & Overy and local law firm Sarkis Attorneys at Law to act as legal advisers on the development of the country’s first independent power project (IPP).

The two law firms will work with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of Washington-based World Bank Group, which is acting as financial adviser, and technical adviser Mott MacDonald, of the UK.

Syria plans to develop a 220-250MW power plant at al-Nasserieh, 60 kilometres north of Damascus. The plant will use heavy fuel oil-fired reciprocating engines.

A request for qualification (RFQ) for developers interested in building the project is expected to be issued by the end of July as Syria ties to boost interest in developing the plant. It will be the second RFQ issued by the PEEGT for the scheme.

The first RFQ led to two firms being prequalified for the project in November 2009, the Marafeq consortium consisting of the local Cham Holding with several Kuwaiti firms; and Finland’s Wartsila with Greece’s Terna Energy. They will be added to any firms prequalified in the second round.

In addition to the al-Nasserieh IPP, PEEGT is also seeking advisers for a 50-100MW wind farm. A total of 15 responses from potential developers have already been received for the RFQ. There are two sites under consideration for the project, which are now undergoing a 12-month data collection period to determine their feasibility.