Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP), belonging to the Nama Group, has announced the launch of the first large utility-scale solar PV independent power project (IPP) in Oman.
The project has been taken up in line with Oman’s vision to diversify fuel sources through the use of clean energy for power generation.
The IPP structure established in Oman will be followed for the development of the project. Under the IPP structure, a transparent competition process will be adopted to award the contract to a private sector company that can deliver a world-class technology solution.
The project is estimated to cost $500m.
The project will be built, owned and operated by the private sector. The scope of the project includes financing, procurement, engineering, construction, operation and maintenance of a new power plant.
The plant will have a generation capacity of 500MW and will be located at Ibri, around 300km west from Muscat.
The power generated by the plant will be sufficient to supply 33,000 homes with electricity and offset 340,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
The tender for the project is expected to be awarded in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the project is expected to be commercially operational by early 2021.
Public Authority for Electricity and Water (Diam) chairman Mohammed Al Mahrouqi said the government was moving forward on diversifying its energy resources in order to drive sustainability on the economic and environmental fronts.
OPWP chairman Hamdan Ali Al Hinai said: “This project will be the first in the chain of renewable energy projects that the company is planning to develop in the coming few years to support the sustainability approach of the country.”
The Public Authority for Electricity and Water (Diam) has completed a wind Atlas for the Sultanate and OPWP will make use of the atlas to carry out a detailed Wind Resources Assessment (WRA) for the shortlisted sites.
OPWP also plans to take up preparatory work to assess the possibility of procuring waste to energy projects in coordination with the Authority for Electricity Regulation and the Environmental Service Holding Company (Beah).
