The Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has awarded to the consortium led by Saudi Arabian energy company ACWA Power the development rights for the 500 MW Ibri II Solar Independent Power Project (IPP). Other members of this consortium include Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) and Alternative Energy projects Company (AEPC).
It was selected after detailed financial, technical and legal evaluation of bid proposals, however, in the official announcement OPWP did not disclose the winning tariff.
This consortium beat the other 2 shortlisted contenders – consortiums led by Abu Dhabi's Masdar and Japan's Marubeni Corporation who made it to the final 3 out of 11 contenders pre-qualified (see Oman Selects 3 Final Bids For 500 MW Tender).
According to local media, the project at Ibri will be built, owned and operated by the winners, with OPWP procuring the power produced which will be fed into the grid. The project will be developed for an investment of more than $400 million and is expected to come online by June 2021.
In February 2019, a Marubeni Corporation led consortium signed a power purchase agreement for the 105 MW Amin Solar PV IPP project that was awarded by the Petroleum Development Oman (see PPA Signed For 105 MW Oman Solar Plant).
Solar IPP 2022
OPWP also shared details of the second large scale solar energy project with 500 MW and 1,000 MW capacity it plans to launch. Dubbed Solar IPP 2022, the project is likely to come up at Manah in the Governorate of A'Dakhiliyah with commercial operations due for June 2022. OPWP plans to release a request for qualification (RFQ) documents sometime around the middle of 2019, followed by a request for proposals by the end of the current calendar year.
Back in October 2018, OPWP had sought services of a technical consultant to advice on competitive tendering of Solar IPP 2022 with expected project capacity of 500 MW and 1 GW (see Oman Seeking Consultancy Services For 1 GW PV).
Once the Solar IPP 2022 plan starts rolling, 2 more big solar tenders can be expected from OPWP, in line with its strategy to procure at least 2 GW of solar power capacity by 2025 (see Oman To Issue 2 GW Of Solar Tenders).