Spanish infrastructure company Acciona announced on Monday the start of the commissioning process for the 570,000 cubic metres per day (m3/day) Jubail 3B Independent Water Plant (IWP) in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. 

A consortium of France's Engie and Saudi's Nesma and Ajlan & Bros was awarded the desalination project in June 2021 by the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC).

The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the desalination plant was awarded to the Acciona-SEPCOIII consortium in November 2021.

Acciona said in a press statement that reverse osmosis-based desalination plant has been energised by switching on the power transformers and its downstream switchgears. The next step would be to start operating the solo pumps to move forward with the wet commissioning.  Once all the required parameters are met at each stage of filtration, the process will continue until the plant produces potable water, expected in the coming months, the statement noted.

Jubail 3B IWP, expected to be fully operational by 2024, will supply potable water to a population of two million people in the cities of Riyadh and Qassim.

The EPC contract also includes a 61 MWp solar photovoltaic (PV) installation next to the plant, which will reduce its power consumption from the grid. The statement said 70 percent of all available land for the project would be covered with PV panels.

(Writing by Senthil Palanisamy; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

Subscribe to our Projects' PULSE newsletter that brings you trustworthy news, updates and insights on project activities, developments, and partnerships across sectors in the Middle East and Africa.