Oman seeks consultant to forecast power demand

Muscat: Oman floated a tender on Tuesday,seeking proposals from international consultants to provide technical advisory services for competitive tendering to secure an economic expansion of power capacity to meet future demand in 2021 and beyond.
The consultant is expected to advice the Oman Power and Water Procurement (OPWP) Company on how to expand capacity within the main interconnected area (MIS)—governorates of Muscat, Buraymi, Al Batinah North, Al Batinah South, Al Dakhiliyah, Al Sharqiyah North, Al Sharqiyah South and Al Dhahirah—which serve over 736,000 electricity customers.
This procurement will be by using the current established process and contract structure.
OPWP, a member of the Electricity Holding Company, is responsible for procuring new electricity generation capacity and water in the Sultanate.
Oman’s average annual growth in power demand for the next five years within the areas of main inter-connected system (MIS) is projected to grow by 10 per cent to 5,023 megawatt (MW) in 2020, according to a seven-year outlook for power demand released by OPWP a couple of years ago.
However, peak demand growth, under the demand forecast, is expected to be about 11 per cent per annum, up from 4,455 MW in 2013 to 9,133 MW in 2020.
The consultancy’s tender documents for technical advisory services will be available for purchase between February 2 and 11, while the last date of submission is March 2.
Within the Salalah region, which covers around 77,000 electricity customers, peak demand is expected to grow at 10 per cent per year, from 420 MW in 2013 to 800 MW in 2020. However, the average demand is projected to grow from 282 MW in 2013 to 553 MW in 2020.
Ibri, Sohar power projects
A tender for selecting a company to provide supervisory consultancy services for the Ibri and Sohar independent power projects has also been floated by the Oman Power and Water Procurement (OPWP) Company. The consultant will provide project management and technical consultancy services during the construction phase, commissioning and testing of Ibri and Sohar independent power projects.
Japan’s Mitsui and Co.-led consortium was awarded concession early last month to build these two power projects, which will have a combined capital expenditure of $2.3 billion.
The consortium will build two independent gas-fired combined cycle power plants, with a combined generation capacity of 3,150 MW—a 1,450 MW project in Ibri and a 1,700 MW capacity unit in Sohar, which is called Sohar 3.
The mega power plants will supply approximately 30 per cent of the electricity that will be consumed in the Muscat area once the commercial operations are underway.
The contract is expected to be signed this month, and Sohar-3 plans to start operations in January 2019, while the Ibri plant will commence power generation in April 2019, added Mitsui.
Mitsui will operate the plants and sell power under a 15-year agreement with OPWP.