Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP), has issued RfQ (request for qualification) for the development of two independent solar power projects - Manah Solar I IPP and Manah Solar II IPP) - in the sultanate.

The projects will be located adjacent to each other at a site in Manah, approximately 150 km from Muscat. Each project will have a generation capacity between 500 MW to 600 MW.

A member of Nama Group, OPWP said the contracts will be awarded in Q3 2020 and the projects are set to be commercially operational by Q4 2022.

Both projects will be built, owned and operated by the private sector and the scope of the projects includes financing, procurement, engineering, construction, operation and maintenance. Each project will attract investment of multiple hundreds of million dollars, it added.

The launch of RFQs comes following the successful tendering of OPWP’s first utility-scale solar IPP (Ibri II Solar project) which was awarded in April this year with a targeted commercial operation date of June 2021, said the statement from OPWP..

The implementation of these projects shall follow the successful IPP model established in Oman, using a transparent competition process to award the contracts to two highly qualified private sector companies delivering world class technology solutions, it stated.

With Oman’s continuous growth, implementation of wider scale solar power projects based on the IPP model will allow OPWP to achieve its objectives of sustainably providing power generation capacity.

The sector will aim to implement solar power projects with a focus on building local capabilities in line with the Nama Group’s sustainability strategy. The last date for submitting the bids is July 29.-TradeArabia News Service