KPMG to advise on Bahrain’s Al-Dur 3 project

6 November 2023

Bahrain’s Electricity & Water Authority (EWA) is understood to have selected a team comprising KPMG Fakhro as a consultant for the Al-Dur 3 independent water and power producer (IWPP) scheme.

KPMG Fakhro saw off competition from UK-based consultancy Ernst & Young, which submitted a lower bid of BD681,689 ($1.8m), compared with KPMG Fakhro's offer of BD758,072 for the contract.

Ewa opened the commercial bids for the consultancy contract in May this year, eight months after it opened the technical bids in September 2022.

The Al-Dur 3 IWPP is expected to consist of a combined-cycle gas turbine plant with a capacity of 1,500MW-1,800MW and a seawater desalination plant with a capacity of approximately 50 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD).

The power generation and water desalination plants are expected to produce early power and water in the summer of 2027, with full commercial operation in the summer of 2028.

Al-Dur 3 will be Bahrain’s fourth independent utility scheme. 

Al-Dur 2

An earlier project, the Al-Dur 2 IWPP,  started full operations in June last year.

EWA selected a team led by Saudi-based utilities developer Acwa Power to develop the project in 2018.

The power generation plant is equipped with combined-cycle gas turbines and has a design capacity of 1,500MW.

The desalination plant uses seawater reverse osmosis technology and can treat up to 227,000 cubic metres of water a day.

The special project vehicle, Haya Power & Desalination Company, comprises Acwa Power, which maintains a 60 per cent share, Japan’s Mitsui with a 30 per cent holding and the local Almoayyed Contracting Group with a 10 per cent stake.

A consortium of China’s Sepco 3, Power China and France’s Sidem was selected as the project’s engineering, procurement, and construction contractor, while Acwa Power subsidiary Noma is the operation and maintenance contractor.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo
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