Qatar state utility General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has invited developers to express interest in the prequalification process for the contract to develop Qatar's next independent water and power producer (IWPP) projects.

Companies have until 28 May to submit letters of interest for the Facility E IWPP scheme, which will have a power generation capacity of 2,300MW and water desalination capacity of 100 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD).

Kahramaa held talks in June last year with utility developers in line with the country's future power generation projects, as MEED reported at the time.

According to sources close to the project, Kahramaa met separately with developers and companies that expressed interest in the Facility E IWPP project in its initial stage.

The contract to develop the Facility E IWPP was first tendered in 2019. The three teams that submitted bids for the contract in August 2020 were:   

• Engie (France) / Mitsui (Japan) / Yonden (Shikoku Electric, Japan)
• Sumitomo / Kansai Electric (Japan)
• Marubeni / Kyushu Electric (Japan)

The original plan for the Facility E IWPP was to have a power generation capacity of about 2,300MW and a desalination component of 100 MIGD once fully operational.

However, the project owner revised the power plant design capacity to 2,600MW, for which it sought alternative prices from bidders, as MEED reported in January 2021.

In January 2022, MEED reported that the technical and financial evaluation was under way for the single bid Kahramaa had received in November 2021 for the Facility E IWPP project.

The sole bidder for the contract was understood to be a team led by Japan's Marubeni Corporation following the withdrawal from the bidding process of two consortiums, one led by French utility developer and investor Engie and the other by Japan's Sumitomo Corporation.

Facility E is Qatar's fifth IWPP scheme. Completed and operational IWPPs include three projects in Ras Laffan – known as facilities A, B and C – and Facility D in Umm al-Houl.

Original timeline

Kahramaa previously said it expected the Facility E plant to produce the first power and water in June and July 2023, respectively, with full commercial operation by 2024.

It appointed a new team of advisers for the project in 2020.

The transaction advisory team includes UK-headquartered PwC and Clyde & Co as financial and legal advisers, and Prague-headquartered Energo as technical adviser.