Oman electricity firm to invest OMR300m in building transmission network

Muscat: The Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC) plans to investOMR300 million over a three-year period for building new transmission lines for evacuating power and upgrading existing infrastructure for distribution.
The investment is being made for building power infrastructure for a three-year period between 2016 and 2018.
“Half of this amount will be invested in supporting evacuation of power from the power plants coming up at Sohar (Sohar 3) and Ibri,” Ali bin Said Al Hadabi, chief executive officer of OETC, told the Times of Oman, in an exclusive interview. “We have a three-year plan, which is starting from this year.”
A consortium led by Mitsui has signed a contract earlier this year to build two independent gas-fired combined cycle power plants with a combined power generation capacity of 3,150 megawatt (MW)—1,450MW unit in Ibri and another 1,700 MW unit in Sohar.
The mega power plants will supply approximately 30 per cent of the electricity that will be consumed in the Muscat area, once these projects become operational in 2019.
Al Hadabi said his company is awarding some projects (400 kilowatt lines) in Batinah and Ibri, which are going to be constructed within the next two to three years. This is in line with the completion of the Sohar and Ibri independent power projects. “OETC will expand its 400 kV network in the Sohar and Ibri areas. The purpose of new 400 kV line is to evacuate power from the new power plants, which are coming up in Sohar and Ibri,” he noted.
He also pointed out that the entire OMR300 million investmentis for expanding transmission lines and sub-stations within the main interconnected system areas (MIS), north and south of Oman to meet the growing need for new load, which is expected in the next few years. The MIS areas cover the governorates of Muscat, Buraimi and most of the South Batinah, Dakhliyah, Sharqiya, North Batinah and Dhahirah regions, serving a majority of electricity customers in Oman.
Talking about the sources of funds, Al Hadabi said the company had raised $1 billion from overseas markets in 2015 for funding investment programmes. “We are planning to raise more funds (next year) to support our future capital investment. We are still evaluating different options. It could be from within the country or outside,” noted Al Hadabi.