Commentary
Jennifer Aguinaldo
Energy & technology editor

On 5 September, the UAE's Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) announced that the fourth reactor or Unit 4 of the Barakah nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi had reached commercial operations.

The event marks the completion of the $43bn, 5,600MW Barakah 1 project jointly implemented by the UAE's Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) and South Korea's Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco).

The entire plant reached full commercial operations approximately 16 years after Abu Dhabi first announced the project in 2008 and 12 years after construction works commenced on Unit 1.

It is a major milestone, coinciding with the UAE's plan to invest in and develop nuclear power plants further afield. For instance, Enec and Kepco signed a preliminary agreement in June this year to explore nuclear investment opportunities in emerging markets. 

The $100bn US-UAE Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (Pace), which was announced in November 2022, is also expected to shift the two countries’ energy cooperation more towards nuclear energy.

The completion of Barakah 1 also implies that the next phase of the project is likely to proceed in earnest.

There is an expectation that the UAE will start government-to-government (GtG) discussions or tender invitations before the end of the year.

Hamad Alkaabi, the UAE's permanent representative to the Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in July that the UAE government is looking at the option of initiating the tendering process for the UAE's next nuclear power plant this year, according to a Reuters report.

He also added that "no final decision has been made in terms of the tender process".

The executive is understood to have said that the UAE government "has yet to budget for a second power plant or decide on the size or location of such a project, but … that it is possible a tender could be issued this year".

The most interesting question, apart from the final tendering process decision, is who will be invited to bid or submit proposals for the contract to implement the UAE nuclear power facility's next phase.

Washington and Abu Dhabi entered into the bilateral 123 Agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation in 2009, which could determine to a large extent which companies or countries will be invited to participate in the next phase of the UAE's programme.

Significantly, Kepco prevailed over the US' General Electric and France's Engie and TotalEnergies for the first phase of Abu Dhabi's nuclear power plant.

This contrasts with Saudi Arabia's first large-scale nuclear power project in Duwaiheen, where GtG discussions are understood to include Russian and Chinese nuclear power plant contractors, and with Egypt's first under-construction nuclear power plant in El-Dabaa, which is being built by Russia's Rosatom with financing from Russia.

Another intriguing question for observers is to what extent Abu Dhabi expects its electricity peak demand and regional electricity trade to grow over the next decade, given the major renewable energy capacity building that is planned as part of its energy diversification and net-zero emissions strategies.