Ras Azzour desalination and power bids invited again

Bids have been invited from local and international contracting companies and manufacturers in both power and desalination for the Ras Azzour Desalination & Power Plant Project.

This project, which will produce 1,025,000 m3/d of desalinated water and 2,400 MW of power, will be the largest desalination/power plant in the world.

The governor of Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), Fehied Fahad Alshareef, announced on 5 December 2009 that bids should be submitted to SWCC by 20 March, 2010 and that the opening of the offers would be on 21 March, 2010. The period for completing is three years.

The 2,400 MW power will be distributed between Maaden (1,350 MW), Saudi Electricity Company (1,000MW) and the secondary manufacturing factories in Ras Azzour industrial area (50 MW). Of the water, 1 million m³ is for the Riyadh area and 25,000m³ for Maaden.

The Ras Azzour project was previously opened for international and local private sector on an IWPP base, but because of the international financial crisis, the consortium did not make the deal. The Saudi Arabian government, therefore, took the responsibility to complete this project from the government budget, which had already allocated the money for it.

The project is expected to start production by the year 2013. The water transmission system contracts were signed some months ago with a value of Saudi Riyals 9 billion (US$ 2,400 billion).