Kuwait’s Electricity, Water & Renewable Energy Ministry (MEWRE), through the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (Kapp), has cancelled previous requests for qualifications (RFQs) and issued new requests for the contracts to develop the country’s next two independent water and power producer (IWPP) projects.Kapp expects interested developers to submit their statements of qualifications (SOQs) to bid for the contracts by 11 July.the Al-Zour North 2 & 3 and Al-Khiran 1 projects will be developed as two separate IWPP contracts.The Al-Zour North 2 & 3 IWPP will merge the previously planned second and third phases. It will have a generation capacity of 2,700MW and a desalination capacity of 120 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD).Located about 100 kilometres south of Kuwait City, the project will be adjacent to the western borders of the first northern Al-Zour facility for electric power generation and water desalination, which is currently in operation, and on the northern borders of the southern Al-Zour station.Kapp said that the Al-Khiran 1 IWPP will have a power generation capacity of 1,800MW and a desalination capacity of 33MIGD.The project is located next to the southern boundary of the Al-Zour South power and water complex.Both projects will export their production to the electricity grid and water transmission grid through an energy transfer and water purchase contract agreement (ECWPA) with MEWRE for 25 years from the date of operation of the station.Both plants are expected to run on a mixture of liquefied natural gas and high-pressure natural gas, with gas oil as a reserve fuel. In September 2022, at least six utility developers were understood to have submitted SOQs to Kapp for the contracts to develop the two IWPP projects.According to industry sources, the companies that submitted SOQs at the time included:Abu Dhabi National Energy (Taqa, UAE)Acwa Power (Saudi Arabia)Jera (Japan)Kepco (South Korea)Mitsui (Japan)Nebras Power (Qatar)Sumitomo (Japan) the selected developer or developers will have the option to use thermal or reverse osmosis technology for the water desalination facility.   A team comprising UK-headquartered firms EY, Atkins and Addleshaw Goddard won the transaction advisory contract for the two IWPPs in April 2021, two months after Kapp obtained approval from the State Audit Bureau to award the contract.Rising demandKuwait has been under pressure to expand its power generation capacity as demand rises. It was reported that peak power demand in the country reached a record 15.7GW in July 2021. Before then, it was understood that the peak load had never exceeded 15GW.The accelerating demand threatens reserve capacity, with the actual operational capacity lower than the overall installed capacity of 19GW.The procurement process for the Al-Zour North 2 and 3 and Al-Khiran 1 IWPP projects began in 2017 (ICE KUWAIT)

Fonte notizia: MEED