Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to nine qualified bidders for a 120 Million Gallons Per Day (MIGD) Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) Plant. This is the first water desalination project that DEWA has undertaken that uses the Independent Water Producer (IWP) model.
DEWA has adopted IWP for the Hassyan desalination plant, following the success of the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park projects. The SWRO project is expected to start operations in 2023. The SWRO desalination plant will use the most efficient, proven and reliable state-of-the art technology. The plant will provide a sustainable supply for DEWA’s water network.
“The development of the project supports the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to promote sustainable development, and achieve the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to provide 75% of Dubai’s total power capacity from clean energy by 2050. We are building production plants based on Reverse Osmosis (RO) which requires less energy than Multi-Stage Flash distillation (MSF) plants, making it a more sustainable choice for water desalination,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.
“The project is part of DEWA’s strategy to increase the water desalination capacity in Dubai to 750 MIGD, from 470 MIGD. DEWA is currently desalinating water through the joint production of electricity and water, using efficient MSF distillation technology, which depends on waste heat created by the production of electricity for water desalination. DEWA also uses RO to desalinate water, a proven technology that is also used around the world, which is ideal for the large production capacity from clean energy,” added Al Tayer.
To date, DEWA has received 34 Request for Qualification (RFQ) documents for a 120 MIGD SWRO IWP project. Subsequently, DEWA evaluated them and shortlisted nine pre-qualified bidders to submit their proposals. The closing date to submit the bids is 31 January 2020.
