Abu Dhabi Plant Start-Up Announced
French global utility group Engie announced November 7 full commercial operation of the Mirfa independent water and power plant (IWPP) project, 160km from Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.
The 1,600 megawatt power and 200,000 m3/day seawater desalination capacity plant has the capacity to generate 10% of Abu Dhabi’s power requirements as peak capacity and over 5% of the emirate’s water generation.
Construction of this $1.5bn IWPP was initiated in October 2014. The majority owner is state utility Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) which has a 60% stake, but Engie and the Abu Dhabi Financial Group each have 20% interests. The project integrated some existing power and desalination capacities.
"Mirfa project is the 10th IWPP to be delivered in Abu Dhabi and the 6th Engie development in the UAE," said Sebastien Arbola, CEO of Engie Middle East, South & Central Asia, and Turkey. In terms of gross capacity, Engie is involved in some way or other in a total gross portfolio of 30,000 MW power and over 4.56mn m3/d desalination capacity in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Following commissioning, the plant will supply power and water services under a 25-year power and water purchase agreement with ADWEA as the single buyer. Engie will also be responsible for the delivery of operations and maintenance of the main plant for a 25-year period, in addition to the O&M services already provided to the other five ADWEA power and water desalination plants in the UAE: Al Taweelah A1, Shuweihat S1 and S2, Umm Al Nar and Fujairah F2.
The UAE remains reliant on gas from Qatar, which the latter is continuing to flow, despite trade restrictions imposed by UAE and other GCC countries against Qatar since June.
Mark Smedley