Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer) has requested new technical bids for the third-phase expansion of its power plant at Ruwais after it decided to expand the plant’s capacity by up to 1,050MW.

Takreer first asked the three bidders on the scheme to submit new bids on 1 November. However, shortly before the new deadline, Takreer informed them that it had made additional technical changes to the project and asked them to incorporate these in their bids. It extended the deadline until 5 November.

The deadline for commercial bids on the contract to expand the power plant’s capacity is 14 December.

Takreer declined to say why it wants to add 1,000MW of capacity, rather than the 750MW it had originally planned.

The bidders have requested extensions to the 5 November deadline, but Takreer has yet to extend the deadline again.

“We need more time,” says one of the bidders.

France’s Alstom with Switzerland-based ABB; Germany’s Siemens and South Korea’s Samsung Corporation; and a consortium of the US’ GE with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries submitted technical bids to increase capacity by 750MW on 30 September.

The Ruwais power plant already has seven gas and two steam turbines with total capacity of more than 650MW. The plant is connected to Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority’s grid through a 220kV underground cable.

Takreer’s water plant at Ruwais has capacity for 13.2 million gallons a day of desalinated water.