Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea) has invited expressions of interest (EOI) from leading global and regional construction companies for the development of a greenfield reverse osmosis (RO) seawater desalination plant at Taweelah region.  

The plant, which will have a capacity of 200 million gallons per day, is expected to be one of the biggest in the world once complete.

To be located at the Taweelah power and water complex, about 45 km north of Abu Dhabi, the project will closely follow the model of Abu Dhabi's successful independent water and power project (IWPP) programme and will be structured as a stand-alone independent water project, said the statement from Adwea.

The project is estimated to cost anywhere between $600 million and $1.2 billion.

Adwea said the developer will own up to 40 per cent of a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) that will sign a long-term agreement to sell water to the authority, which will directly or indirectly own the rest of the equity in the project.

The SPV will enter into a long-term water purchase agreement with the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company, the single buyer of power and water capacity output in the emirate, stated the Abu Dhabi utility.

Currently, the emirate’s water production capacity is around 960 million gallons per day from 10 desalination plants.

Adwea has set February 7 as the deadline for submitting the bids.-TradeArabia News Service