Salalah IWPP works to begin this week

By V L Srinivasan

Muscat, Feb 7: The construction of the 445MW Sembcorp Salalah independent water and power production (IWPP) plant coming up at Taqah in the Dhofar Governorate, will begin on Wednesday.

Minister of State and Dhofar Governor H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Marhoon al Mama'ri will be the chief guest and officials from various departments will attend the programme, which is scheduled to begin at 10.30am.

The billion-dollar project has been awarded to a consortium of companies including Oman Investment Corporation and the Singapore-based Sembcorp Utilities. The consortium will develop the project on build, own and operate(BOO) basis for 15 years.

Besides generating power, it will produce 15 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD) desalinated water from sea using reverse osmosis technology.

The gas-based project will be supplied with gas by an existing gas pipeline that serves consumers in Salalah with gas from Saih Rawl in central Oman. The project is to begin commercial operations in two phases and expected to be completed by 2012.
The IWPP will meet the electricity demand of the Salalah region, which is expected to more than double to 552MW by 2016 from the existing 260MW, growing 11 per cent per year due to growing industrial and tourism projects.

At present, the Dhofar Power Company is supplying power to 50,000 customers in and around Salalah. The new project will increase the power capacity in the region from 321 MW to 766 MW, where demand is expected to double over the next six years.

Drinking water demand in the Salalah region is expected to grow at an average annual rate of five per cent from 23.4 million cu m in 2009 to 30.8 million cu m by 2015. While Sembcorp owns 60 per cent, the remaining 40 per cent is owned by Oman Investment Corporation.