Gulf Construction Online - Hassyan coal plant a step closer

UAE Focus

Hassyan coal plant a step closer

01 November 2015

A consortium including China’s Harbin Electric and Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power has been chosen as the preferred bidder to build and operate the 1,200 MW first phase of a clean coal power plant in Dubai, the state utility Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) said.

The 1,200-MW Hassyan clean coal power plant will be built by Harbin Electric and Alstom. Alstom will lead the engineering, procurement and construction EPC consortium and will be responsible for the overall engineering, the supply and eventual commissioning of the power block, and co-ordinating the balanced integration of all the plant’s components and guarantee the its performance.

The plant will be operated and maintained by Acwa and Harbin in partnership with Alstom Power and US-based NRG. The power plant will use the best available technologies and the highest global standards in this field, said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of Dewa. It will use the ultra-supercritical (USC) technology to reduce any negative impact on the environment, he remarked.

The consortium bid to provide electricity at a levellised cost of 4.501 US cents per kilowatt hour based on May 2015 coal prices, Dewa said.

The consortium will under the contract meet flue gas emission limits more stringently than emission limits in the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) of the European Union and in the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Guidelines.

The project will be implemented using the IPP model on a build, own, operate (BOO) basis and Dewa will be the major stakeholder with 51 per cent share in the company that will be established.

The first phase of the project comprises two units of 600 MW each and will be operational by March 2020 and March 2021, respectively.

Dewa is planning to launch two additional projects, to bring the total capacity to 3,600 MW, Al Tayer added.