Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) said on Thursday that it had received the world’s lowest water levelized tariff of 0.306 USD per cubic meter for the company’s first Independent Water Producer (IWP) project: the 120 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) Hassyan Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) plant.
In a statement, the Dubai water utility announced it had started to evaluate the various bids received and plans to announce the preferred bidder in the second quarter of 2020. The project aims to be commissioned in August 2023, reports Zawya.
The new facility which is to adopt the latest and most efficient technologies available to support DEWA’s water network to ensure sustainable water supply, is part of the utility’s strategy to increase the seawater desalination capacity of Dubai to 750 MIGD, from 470 MIGD at present.
Currently, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority desalinates water through the joint production of electricity and water by using efficient Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) distillation technology that relies on waste heat created by the production of electricity for water desalination.
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA said: "We are building water production plants based on Reverse Osmosis (RO) which requires less energy than MSF distillation plants, making it a more sustainable choice for water desalination.”
DEWA had issued an Expression of Interest (EOI) in June, 2019, prequalifying 9 international bidders to whom the Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued last October.
DEWA also said it adopted the IWP Procurement model for the planned desalination plant following the success of the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park projects.
