(Second bidder's name corrected in first paragraph)

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority PJSC (DEWA) announced on Tuesday that it received two bids from Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and Abu Dhabi-based TAQA (Abu Dhabi National Energy Company) for its 120 Million Gallons per Day (MIGD) Hassyan Independent Water Producer (IWP) project.

ACWA Power submitted the lowest water levelised tariff of 0.389 USD per cubic metre (m3) for the base proposal of 120 MIGD and 0.365 USD/m3 for the Alternative Proposal of 180 MIGD. 

The desalination project is the DFM-listed utility’s first IWP and will be located within the Hassyan area on Dubai’s Arabian Gulf coast.

DEWA said it has commenced evaluation of the bids and aims to select the Preferred Bidder during the second quarter of 2023.

The 120 MIGD IWP project, based on reverse osmosis (RO) technology, comprises two blocks of 60 MIGD each. The first block is scheduled to start operations in October 2025 while second block will start operations in April 2026, a DEWA press statement said.

“We are building water production plants based on RO which requires less energy than Multi-Stage Flash distillation (MSF) plants, making it a more sustainable choice for water desalination. By 2030, DEWA aims to produce 100 percent of desalinated water by a mix of clean energy and waste heat,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.

DEWA issued the Expression of Interest (EOI) notice for the project on 11 August 2022. The Request for Qualification (RFQ) was issued to 29 interested bidders on 17 October 2022.

Six prequalified bidders were invited to submit bids via Request for Proposal (RFP) issued on 9 December 2022. 

Read more: Saudi’s SWPC announces preferred bidder for Rabigh 4 Independent Water Plant

(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by Bhaskar Raj)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)