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  EDF eyes 5GW UAE hydropower plant

  6 December 2024

  Bilateral talks are under way between France’s EDF and Ras Al-Khaimah Municipality for a potential 5GW pumped storage hydropower plant in the UAE northern emirate.

  A local media report recently cited EDF Middle East chief executive Luc Koechlin saying the company is in talks with the municipality to set up a 5GW PSH plant, which is likely the biggest in the world. 

  The project is envisaged to be capable of storing energy for up to 12 hours. It is a country-level initiative aimed at balancing electricity supply in the UAE, where clean energy plays an increasingly significant role in the energy mix.

  “Most of the solar farm development is happening in Abu Dhabi and Dubai but for the storage and especially pumped storage, you need mountains,” Koechlin said.

  He added that connecting the power grids will help effectively manage energy generated from solar, nuclear and large-scale storage systems.

  The UAE and GCC region's first pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant in Hatta is 94.15% complete, and generator installations are under way in preparation for a trial operation in the first quarter of 2025, state utility Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) said in November.

  The Hatta plant's upper dam, which includes a 72-metre-high main wall and a 37-metre-high side dam, has also been filled. The plant will have a production capacity of 250MW, a storage capacity of 1,500 megawatt-hours and a lifespan of up to 80 years.

  The state utility awarded the contract to build the plant to a consortium of Austrian firms Strabag and Andritz and Turkey’s Ozkar in August 2019.

  Dewa said on 12 November that the AED1.421bn ($387m) project is expected to be fully completed by the end of the second quarter of 2025.

  The hydroelectric power plant is designed as an energy storage facility with a turnaround efficiency of 78.9%.

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  Jennifer Aguinaldo
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  Oman seeks interest for 2.4GW thermal project

  6 December 2024

  Oman's Nama Power and Water Procurement Company (Nama PWP) has invited companies to express interest in a competitive tender for the development of combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants with a total planned capacity of 2,400MW.

  The project will be implemented on a build, own and operate (BOO) basis.

  The state offtaker said it expects to issue the tender in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025 and award the BOO contract by Q4 of 2025.

  It also expects early power in Q2 2028, with full commercial operation set for Q2 2029.

  US/India-based Synergy Consulting is the client's financial adviser.

  The new project presents a u-turn to a previous decision that Oman will not build any new gas-fired power generation plants, which local media reported in 2022.

  A local media report citing Authority for Public Services Regulation (APSR) chairman Mansoor al-Hinai at the time stated that "a decision has been taken that meeting any growth in electricity demand in the future is from renewable sources only".

  It was said that Oman will no longer float any tenders other than for solar or wind power generation plants "at this time".

  IWPP/IPP extensions 

  In May, Nama PWP announced the award of renewed contracts for four gas-fired independent power and water projects in the sultanate.

  The agreements collectively secure over 1,500MW of electricity and 200,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of desalinated water for up to nine years.

  The contract renewals follow the expiry or expected expiry of the power- or power and water-purchase agreements for the following plants:

  • Barka 1 independent water and power project (IWPP): 427MW (installed power generation capacity) / 101,000 cm/d (desalination capacity)
  • Barka 2 IWPP: 703MW / 120,000 cm/d
  • Rusail independent power project (IPP): 184MW
  • Manah IPP: 179MW

   Related read: Firms prepare Oman wind IPP bids

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  Jennifer Aguinaldo
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  Neom hydrogen project reaches 60% completion rate

  6 December 2024

  

   

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  Construction work on the $8.4bn Neom green hydrogen project in Saudi Arabia has reached a 60% completion rate.

  According to a source close to the project, work is ongoing across all three sites, including the wind, solar and green hydrogen production facilities.

  At this rate, the project appears on track to meet the company’s 2026 target commercial operation date.

  Former Neom Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) CEO, David Edmondson, told MEED in November last year that “the first ammonia production is expected sometime between mid to late summer of 2026”.

  The executive also confirmed at the time that NGHC and its shareholders “are now looking at a potential second phase” of the project.

  “The Neom green hydrogen project is not expected to be a single investment,” Edmondson said.

  The US-headquartered industrial gases firm Air Products, Saudi utility developer Acwa Power and Public Investment Fund-backed Neom equally own NGHC, the project company implementing the scheme.

  In addition to being the project’s co-owner, main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor and system integrator, Air Products is also the exclusive offtaker for over 30 years for the green ammonia produced at the facility.

  The integrated facility will produce hydrogen, which will be synthesised into carbon-free ammonia for exclusive export by Air Products to global markets.

  The Neom green hydrogen project will require over 4GW of wind and solar power and 400MW of battery energy storage systems. A 190-kilometre electricity transmission grid will link these to a 2GW electrolysis plant in Neom’s Oxagon industrial city.

  The plant will produce up to 600 tonnes of hydrogen daily, which will be converted into about 1.2 million tonnes of ammonia a year.

  Construction works have been in full swing for the various elements of the project, after it reached financial close in May 2023.

  India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is the EPC contractor for the project’s renewable energy and transmission and distribution package.

  L&T’s EPC scope includes a 2,200MW solar plant, a 1,370MW wind farm, a 400MW battery energy storage system and a transmission network extending 190km.

  In October last year, NGHC received the first set of wind turbines for one of the two renewable energy plants that will power the integrated green hydrogen and ammonia production facility.

  MEED reported in May that Greek contractor Archirodon had won the $100m design-and-build contract for the jetty catering to the project.

  The jetty will handle liquid ammonia exports to Europe. The project is expected to be completed in 2025.

  Photo credit: NGHC

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  Jennifer Aguinaldo
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  Algeria cancels $1.3bn refinery contract and makes new award

  6 December 2024

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  Algerian state energy producer Sonatrach has cancelled its $1.3bn contract with South Korea’s Samsung Engineering for the planned $3.7bn Hassi Messaoud refinery project in Algeria, and replaced it with China’s Sinopec.

  Samsung Engineering confirmed the contract’s cancellation on 28 November without specifying the reason.

  Sonatrach officially signed the main contract award for the Hassi Messaoud refinery with the consortium of Samsung Engineering and Tecnicas Reunidas in January 2020.

  Since then, little progress has been made on the project due to various factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused significant disruption to the project.

  Spanish newspaper CincoDias reported that China’s Sinopec has replaced Samsung Engineering on the project.

  Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas is still participating in the project, according to industry sources.

  In August this year, MEED revealed that only some preliminary engineering work had been finished and the project was about 5% complete.

  In 2023, Sonatrach restarted talks with the consortium that won the contract to execute the Hassi Messaoud refinery project to get it moving, but they were unsuccessful.

  Talks were reinstated in 2024, but these were also unsuccessful.

  In August, MEED revealed that Samsung Engineering and Tecnicas Reunidas had asked for amendments to the original deal due to the significant increase in building material prices since the original contracts were signed, which implies the project cannot be completed with the same budget.

  At the time, a source said that the consortium wanted more money to account for inflation since 2020, when the contracts were signed.

  In July this year, the vice-president of refining and petrochemicals at Sonatrach, Slimane Slimani, said that his company aimed to bring the facility online before the end of 2027.

  Industry sources say this target will be difficult to achieve given the extensive delays and disruption that the project has suffered.

  Speaking on Radio Algerienne Chaine 3 in July, Slimani said that Sonatrach had officially revived the project, and its execution was aligned with the company’s broader strategy for the country’s downstream sector.

  He said the refinery project is estimated to produce an extra 2.7 million tonnes of diesel fuel and 1.2 million tonnes of gasoline a year.

  When Sonatrach first announced the project, it was part of Algeria’s $14bn strategic downstream capacity expansion programme, which included the construction of five new refineries.

  Under the terms of the original contracts signed in 2020, contractors were required to execute the works on a lump-sum turn-key basis.

  Prior to the delays, the work was expected to be completed in about 52 months and conclude in the first quarter of 2025.

  The scope of work includes building process and utility units; a crude distillation unit/vacuum distillation unit; a continuous catalytic reforming unit; an isomerisation, naphtha hydro-treating unit; a hydro desulphurisation unit; and a hydrocracker unit, as well as utility systems.

  In recent years, Algeria’s $14bn strategic downstream capacity expansion programme has been scaled down and delayed.

  Initially, Sonatrach awarded the front-end engineering and design contract for three refineries to London-based Amec Foster Wheeler in 2016.

  These three refineries were located in Hassi Messaoud, Biskra and Tiaret.

  Under the original $14bn plan, a further two refineries were to be added later.

  Budget issues in 2017 put the Biskra refinery on hold so that Sonatrach could focus on moving forward with the Hassi Messaoud and Tiaret refineries.

  Then, in 2018, Sonatrach cancelled the tendering process for the Tiaret refinery following a major downstream review.

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  Wil Crisp
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  EDF-led team signs 1.4GW Saudi solar deals

  5 December 2024

  France's EDF Renewables and its consortium partner, China’s SPIC Huanghe Hydropower Development Company, have signed the power-purchase agreements (PPAs) with the principal buyer, Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC), for two solar photovoltaic (PV) projects with a total combined capacity of 1,400MW in Saudi Arabia.

  EDF Renewables and SPIC successfully bid for the contracts to develop and operate the 1,000MW Al-Masaa solar independent power producer (IPP) and the 400MW Al-Henakiyah 2 solar IPP projects earlier this year.

  The projects are estimated to cost $850m.

  The 400MW Al-Henakiyah 2 solar IPP is located 36 kilometres southeast of Al-Henakiyah town in Medina while the 1,000MW Al-Masaa project is located in Dharghat town in Hail province.

  The consortium will develop, build, own and operate the projects as part of a 25-year agreement with SPPC.

  The signing of the PPAs between Beatrice Buffon, EDF Group vice-president, International Division, and chairwoman and CEO of EDF Renewables, and Mazin Albahkali, SPPC chief executive, coincided with the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron in Riyadh.

  In addition to Macron, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, Saudi Commerce Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, and French Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention, Agnes Pannier-Runacher witnessed the signing of the PPAs.

  EDF said once operational, both projects are expected to power more than 240,000 homes a year and displace more than 2.7 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

  The Al-Masaa and Al-Henakiyah solar IPPs were tendered earlier this year under the fifth procurement round of Saudi Arabia's National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP).

  Photo credit: EDF

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  Jennifer Aguinaldo