Abu Dhabi to construct 1,500MW power plant

Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea) will announce plans later this year to build a 1,500-megawatt power plant, the agency's director general said yesterday.

The facility will also produce 100 million gallons of water, Abdullah Saif Al Nuaimi told Bloomberg during an interview in Abu Dhabi.

Electricity demand in Abu Dhabi is growing at 12 per cent a year, while water use is likely rise at an annual rate of 5 per cent, he said earlier at an industry conference. Adwea's installed generating capacity is 14,000 megawatts, said Al Nuaimi.

Growing deficit

"The power demand in the UAE is growing at 10 per cent a year and there's a growing deficit," Kate Dourian, Middle East editor with Platts, a global energy information provider, told Gulf News. "They need a lot more."

Abu Dhabi is seeking to assess its power needs before the first of the UAE's four planned nuclear plants comes on stream in 2017.

Sumitomo Corp. and Korea Electric Power Corp. are already building the Shuweihat 3 power plant, a $1.5 billion (Dh5.5 billion) unit designed to produce 1,600 megawatts when it starts operating in 2014.

Korea Electric also has contracted to build the nation's nuclear reactors, each of which will generate 1,600 megawatts.

Plants now under construction in the UAE will add more than 2,500 megawatts of power and 100 million gallons of water-treatment capacity.

Investment

It is estimated that in the GCC an investment of $125 billion will be needed to meet growing demand in power over the next decade, which is estimated to rise an average of eight to 10 per cent per year.

"The demand for power and water continues to grow, creating opportunities for investment in Abu Dhabi and the GCC region," said Al Nuaimi.

Of the UAE's current electricity generation cap-acity, almost 85 per cent of the power generated is gas-based, while the other plants are oil-fired.

Nearly all of Abu Dhabi and Dubai's electricity comes from gas-based stations.