Japan’s Mitsubishi Power will supply the gas turbines powering Qatar’s recently awarded Facility E independent water and power producer (IWPP) project located in Ras Abu Fontas, according to an industry source.

Qatar state utility General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) awarded a contract to develop and operate the Facility E IWPP project to the sole bidder led by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation on 25 November.

The Facility E IWPP scheme will have a power generation capacity of 2,415MW and a water desalination capacity of 110 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD).

MEED reported in July that Sumitomo had submitted a proposal for the contract. It leads a consortium that comprises fellow Japanese utility developer Shikoku Electric, Seoul-headquartered Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation (KIND) and Korea Southern Power Company (Kospo).

The developer consortium’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner is South Korea’s Samsung C&T, which confirmed that the project’s EPC package is valued at $2.8bn.

The total project cost is roughly $3.7bn.

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

Kahramaa revised the power plant’s design capacity to 2,600MW and sought alternative prices from bidders. 

Kahramaa eventually cancelled and reissued the tender in September 2023. 

MEED understands that the new target commercial operation date for the Facility E IWPP project has been moved to 2029. 

The state utility’s transaction advisory team includes UK-headquartered PwC and Clyde & Co as financial and legal advisers, respectively, led by Belgrade-headquartered Energoprojekt as technical adviser.

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.

Awarded in 2015 and completed in 2018, Facility D was developed by a Japanese consortium of Mitsubishi Corporation and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco). South Korea’s Samsung C&T was the EPC contractor.