Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) announced on Tuesday that it has issued Request for Qualification (RFQ) tender for companies that had expressed interest in developing the 1,500-megawatt (MW) Al Ajban Solar Photovoltaic Independent Power Plant (Al Ajban Solar PV IPP) project in Ajban in the Abu Dhabi emirate.

EWEC, which is the main off-taker for water and electricity projects in Abu Dhabi, made the announcement via its official twitter handle. Details about the RFP submission deadline and the number of companies who responded to the Expression of Interest (EOI) invite weren’t disclosed.

The EOI for the project, slated to be Abu Dhabi’s third solar PV IPP after Noor Abu Dhabi and Al Dhafra, was issued in May 2022.

The project involves the development, financing, construction, operation, maintenance and ownership of the solar PV plant, and associated infrastructure, according to a May 2022 statement by EWEC.  

The statement had said the long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)  would be structured as an Energy Purchase Agreement whereby EWEC will pay only for the net electrical energy supplied by the plant.

Abu Dhabi is currently home to the 1,200MW Noor Abu Dhabi, the world’s largest single-site solar power plant, and the under-construction 2,000MW Al Dhafra Solar PV, which will be the new world’s largest single-site solar power plant once commercially operational.

(Writing by Senthil Palanisamy; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)