By Conrad Prabhu — MUSCAT — The Rural Areas Electricity Company (RAECO) is preparing to ramp up investment in new diesel-based power generation capacity to meet escalating electricity demand in areas that fall outside of Oman’s two principal electricity grids. In Musandam Governorate, the state-owned utility is developing its biggest-ever diesel-based power plant at Khasab. At 80 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity, it will surpass in size its 63MW diesel-fired power station in Duqm, which currently ranks among the largest of its network of 45 electricity plants operating within its jurisdiction. Yesterday, RAECO floated a competitive tender for an engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) contract linked to the establishment of a 56MW diesel-powered station on Masirah Island in South Al Sharqiyah Governorate.
More than half a dozen local power engineering contractors are bidding for RAECO’s contract to execute the 80 MW diesel power plant in Khasab on an EPC basis.
Technical bids were opened recently and their evaluation is under way, according to RAECO officials. This will be followed by the evaluation of the corresponding financial offers. A two-year timeframe has been specified for the execution of the project upon the announcement of a contract award. Importantly, this project is quite distinct from another power scheme planned at Tibat in the Wilayat of Bukha in Musandam Governorate. Envisaged at Tibat is a roughly 100 MW plant that will be powered by gas for the first time in the governorate. Natural gas as fuel for the Tibat plant will come from a new integrated oil and gas processing plant (also known as the Musandam Gas Plant) currently under development by Oman Oil Company’s upstream subsidiary, Oman Oil Company Exploration and Production (OOCEP). OOCEP is investing around $600 million in an integrated processing plant with a capacity to treat 45 million standard cubic feet per day of gas and 20,000 barrels per day of crude oil. Korean engineering and construction giant Hyundai is building the gas plant on an EPC contract.
The project is a key part of a raft of major infrastructure schemes being implemented by the government in this strategically important Omani enclave in accordance with the Royal directives of His Majesty the Sultan. Around RO 500 million has been earmarked towards a number of large-scale ventures — encompassing energy, power and water, road and maritime transportation, and healthcare and education — during the current 8th Five Year Plan (2011-2015). The 132KV overhead transmission line will start at Tibat, where the power plant is proposed to be located. It will travel around 18 kilometres to Khasab and extend a further 80 kilometres all the way to Daba. Also as part of the project, 132KV grid stations will be built at Tibat, Khasab and Daba. The project’s substantial cost is attributable to the extremely rugged terrain through which the transmission line will run. A subsidiary of the wholly government-owned Electricity Holding Company (EHC), RAECO undertakes the generation, distribution and supply of electricity, as well as water desalination activities, in areas of the Sultanate that lie outside the Main Electricity System (MlS) serving north Oman, and the Salalah Power System, covering Dhofar Governorate.
Its consumers, who have since swelled 12 per cent to over 25,375 customers, are distributed across Musandam Governorate, as well Wusta, Masirah Island, and parts of Al Dakhiliyah, Al Dhahirah, Al Sharqiyah and Dhofar Governorates that are not served by other distribution and supply utilities. All 45 power stations operated by RAECO within its licensed areas are diesel-fired. (OEPPA Business Development Dept)
No comments :
Post a Comment