Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC) is expected to award tender for the construction of its new water and electricity plant in Umm Al Haul next month, Al Sharq reported yesterday quoting Fahad Al Muhannadi, General Manager of QEWC .
Given the rising demand for utilities, the QEWC is expanding its production capacity of water and electricity by building a new plant with an installed capacity of 2,400MW and 130 million gallons of desalinated water per day.
"The tender for the plant will be awarded next month and the implementation of the project will start by the first quarter of 2015. The production will begin from mid-2017," Al Muhannadi told the daily on the sidelines of an event held to celebrate the successful operation of Ras Laffan Power Company ( RLPC ) for over the last eight years without any accident.
"The RLPC has made a remarkable achievement over the last eight years that too without any accident, which reflects upon the company's commitment towards safety and security. It has successfully repaid all its debt and now expecting to earn significant profits to be distributed among its promoters," he was quoted as saying by the daily.
Currently, Qatar's total installed power generation capacity is about 8,700MW, while the estimated peak demand is about 6,800MW, with a surplus capacity of nearly 2,000MW. However, with the rising population and rapid economic progress the surplus capacity is shrinking day-by-day. Taking cue from the rapidly growing demand of utilities, Qatar has already started enhancing its production capacity.
"We expect the new plant will meet the growing demand of utility services in the country by 2022, added Al Muhannadi, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of RLPC .
The RLPC – owned Ras Laffan Power and Water Plant, the first independent electricity and water project in Qatar, is located in Ras Laffan Industrial City. It started generating power in March 2003 and began producing water in May 2004.
The $700m plant produces 820MW of electricity, 750 megawatts of which is delivered to Qatar's national grid. The integrated desalination plant provides 40 million gallons of potable water per day.
The American AES Company has a 50 percent stake in the project, while Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Gulf Investment Corporation have 10 percent each. The remaining 25 percent share is held by QEWC .
The Phase 2 of project ( RLPC ), with an ultimate capacity of some 1,020MW and approximately 60 million gallons of water, was inaugurated in mid-2009 and phase 3 is planned, according to the information available at QP website.
The Peninsula
13 November
