Sumitomo team submits Facility E bid
25 July 2024
A team led by Japan's Sumitomo Corporation submitted a bid for the contract to develop and operate Qatar’s Facility E independent water and power producer (IWPP) project.
Qatar state utility General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) previously extended the tender closing date for the contract in response to developers’ requests, as MEED reported.
Kahramaa received the single bid on 25 July.
Sumitomo is understood to have submitted a proposal for the contract along with fellow Japanese utility developer Shikoku Electric, and Seoul-headquartered Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation and Korea Southern Power Company.
The developer consortium's engineering, procurement and consortium (EPC) partner is South Korea's Samsung C&T, according to sources close to the project.
The Facility E IWPP scheme will have a power generation capacity of 2,300MW and a water desalination capacity of 100 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD).
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 Facility E IWPP to have a power generation capacity of about 2,300MW and a desalination component of 100MIGD once fully operational.
However, 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. The current tender entails a power generation plant with the same capacity as initially tendered in 2019.
MEED understands that the new target commercial operation date for the Facility E IWPP project has been moved to 2027.
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 engineering, procurement and construction contractor.
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