Oman plans to develop 800MW power project in Muscat

Muscat: Oman plans to develop a major gas-fired independent power project with a generation capacity of 800 megawatts in Muscat region to meet the growing demand for electricity, said a senior official of Oman Power and Water Procurement (OPWP) Company.
Eng. Yaqoob bin Saif Al Kiyumi, chief operating officer of OPWP, said that his company has already started ground work for the project, which will be developed by an independent power producer.
Get your essential daily briefing delivered direct to your email inbox with our e-newsletter
“We will start prequalification before the end of this year and the project will be in Muscat,” he said, adding that the plan is to start operation by 2021.
Oman’s average annual growth in power demand for the next five years within the areas of main inter-connected system (MIS) is projected at 10 per cent to 5,023 megawatt in 2020, according to a seven-year outlook for power demand released by Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) a couple of years ago.
However, peak demand growth, under the demand forecast, is expected at about 11 per cent per annum, from 4,455 megawatt in 2013 to 9,133 megawatt in 2020.
The Muscat project is going to commence operation after two major independent power projects — Sohar3 and Ibri — that are under development start generation in January and April 2019, respectively.
A Mitsui-led consortium is building the two independent gas-fired combined cycle power plants, with a combined generation capacity of 3,150 megawatts (MW) - 1,450 MW in Ibri and a 1,700 MW capacity in Sohar 3.
Water projects in Muscat, Batinah
Eng. Al Kiyumi, who was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a signing ceremony to award Sohar independent water project, said that OPWP also plans to build one each major independent water project in Muscat and Northern Batinah regions.
The capacity of each project will be higher than 250,000 cubic meters per day. Another independent water project (of roughly around 20,000 cubic liter per day capacity) is coming up in Khasab.”We have already started the ground work for this project.” This is part of a series of small and large water projected planned in different parts of the country.
He said that the demand for water is growing by 6 per cent every year and the new projects are expected to meet the demand.
Referring to the progress in developing three independent water projects in Salalah, Sharqiya and Duqm, he said that OPWP has already floated a request for proposal for developing two projects – Salalah and Sharqiya – after selecting pre-qualified companies. “RfP for Duqm is still not floated. We expect bids to be submitted by this summer and the projects will be awarded by the end of this year. The two projects (Salalah and Sharqiya) will have a combined capacity of 200,000 cubic liters per day,” noted Eng. Al Kiyumi.
Eng. Al Kiyumi saidthat Salalah and Shaquiya water projects are expected to be operational in 2019.
He said a request for proposal seeking bids from pre-qualified companies will be floated before the end of the summer.