Saudi Arabia-based Acwa Power is set to win the contract to develop the 600 MW Phase 1 of Dubai’s 1,200 megawatt (MW) Hassyan Clean Coal power plant as its offer takes into account an additional 600MW. Acwa and its Chinese partner Harbin Electric International Company Ltd have submitted the lowest bid of 4.9 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) to develop the 1,800 MW plant.
This cheaper bid is against 5.17 cents bid for the original plan for a 1,200 MW plant. Dewa will most probably award the contract to the Acwa consortium. The winner will be announced at any time within the coming month. The closest competitor, Korea Electric Power Corporation, submitted a bid of 59.9 cents. The winner will develop the plant on an Independent Power Project (IPP) basis with 49 per cent ownership. Other shortlisted contenders include AXIA Power Holdings BV, a subsidiary of Japan’s Marubeni Group, and Malaysia’s Tenaga Nasional Berhad in partnership with the Chinese Machinery Engineering Corporation. A similar situation had arisen with the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park project where Dewa first tendered a 100MW project only to award a 200 MW contract when Acwa Power with Spanish partner TSK offered the lowest bid of 4.9 cents per kWh.
The tender for Hassyan was initially launched in August 2014 but the submission deadline was extended twice from the initial cutoff date of 26 November, 2014. Eight pre-qualified bidders were asked to submit their bids on 26 January, 2015. This deadline was again extended to 26 March 2015 based on bidder requests. The last year saw the bidder numbers halve and partnerships change – for instance, Acwa Power had then partnered with Korea Electric Power Corporation and Harbin Electric partnered with China Huadian Corporation Power Plant Operation Co Ltd. The project will use clean coal as a feedstock for electricity generation and sell the generated energy to Dewa under a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). According to Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Chief Executive Officer of Dewa, the project financing can involve different modes, including syndication. Phase 1 of the project, with 600 MW capacity, will be commissioned during the second quarter of 2020, while phase 2 with same capacity will be completed by Q4 2020. When fully operational, the facility will contribute 12 per cent of the projected energy output under Dubai’s 2030 Integrated Energy Strategy and aims to be the world’s largest carbon capture scheme. The master plan of the project is being done by Ernst & Young (EY) international consultancy firm. In March 2015, ACWA’s said in a company statement that Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) awarded the Salalah 2 Independent Power Project (IPP) to a consortium of Acwa Power, Mitsui and Dhofar International Development and Investment Holding Company (Didic).
