Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC) is planning to build a power and desalination plant at Umm Al Haul, with capacity to generate 2.4GW of electricity and produce 590,000 cmd (130mn gal/day) of water. QEWC general manager Fahd al-Muhannadi told Al-Sharq newspaper that “we expect to award the contract within the next three months. Four companies have expressed interest in bidding.”
QEWC says that Qatar’s total power generation and desalination capacity is 8.75GW and 1.49mn cmd (328 MIGD). The company’s own capacity is 5.43GW of electricity and 1.17mn cmd (258 MIGD) of water. “The available power generation capacity in Qatar currently exceeds its requirements by 2.7GW,” says QEWC. The rapid development of Qatar’s economy and population has “resulted in increases in demand for electricity and water…at a compounded annual growth rate of 10.3% in the last five years.” (CONTINUED - 274 WORDS)
