A competitive process for the establishment of a new medium-sized Independent Power Project (IPP) in Dhofar Governorate is expected to be launched in October. The state-owned Oman Power and Water Procurement Company ( OPWP ), which has the sole mandate under the sector law to procure all new electricity generation and water desalination capacity, is overseeing the development of the project, which is proposed to come up at Raysut. A Request for Qualifications (RfQ), inviting interested developers and investors to prequalify for the competitive procurement process, is due to be floated within the next 2-3 weeks, it is learnt. The gas-fired project is currently envisioned as a power-only scheme sized at between 200-400 megawatts of generation capacity. An earlier plan to include a water desalination component has been dropped from the scope of the project. It is understood that the new IPP will be located close to the site of Dhofar Power Company 's ( DPC ) existing gas-fired power plant. DPC operates a roughly 200MW facility at Raysut, not far from the governorate's industrial and logistics hub. In light of the IPP's proposed location away from the shoreline, OPWP is weighing a 'cooling tower' model as an alternative to seawater-based cooling in the operation of the power plant. A 'cooling tower' or once-through model of cooling is known to have certain benefits over seawater-based cooling. Global professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is providing financial advisory services to OPWP in the implementation of the privately funded project. International engineering and consultancy services firm Fichtner is the Technical Adviser, while multinational law firm DLA Piper providing Legal Advisory Services. A timeline set out by OPWP for the implementation of the IPP envisions a December 2012 window for the issuance of a Request for Proposals (RfP) followed by a contract award before the end of 2013. The project is due to be brought into operation during 2016. Peak power demand in the Salalah System is anticipated to grow by 10 per cent annually from 348 MW in 2011 to 690 MW in 2018, says OPWP . In the low-case scenario, demand growth is expected to be sustained at 7 per cent, reaching 571 MW by 2018. But the high-case scenario considers more rapid industrialisation in Salalah, with peak demand projected to jump 17 per cent annually to 1041 MW in 2018. Electricity demand in Salalah and its environs is projected to soar in the coming years, fuelled by investment in new infrastructure, tourism and leisure schemes, shopping malls, commercial centres, and general real estate development. Large scale investment in a modernised international airport, the expansion of Salalah Port, new industrial ventures in the adjoining Free Zone, and integrated tourism complexes, is expected to drive up power demand. Oman Daily
