Tenders will be invited by mid-year for Dubai Electricity and Water Authority's (Dewa) new 700mw power and 70 MIGD desalination plant in Jebel Ali, confirmed a top official.

The first phase of the 'L' station project should be ready by end-2003, the official added. Cost estimates are being worked out.

"It will be an international tender and we will leave it to the contractors to give us the best price for the project. There is no such thing as the preferred partner for us," said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, general manager.

"This will be a co-generation plant featuring gas and steam turbines and the desalination works." Dewa already has the 'K' station project nearing the commissioning date by mid-2002. The facility will add 850mw of power to Dubai's existing capacity.

The 'K' station will feature three gas turbines, two steam turbines and five generators. It will also have daily production capacity of 530 million litres of desalinated water.

With the L and K stations coming online, overall power capacity within the emirate will increase to over 4,000mw, Al Tayer added.

Also this year, there will be upgrades to some of the older substations and on the transformers. There are another two projects for 132/11 kv transformer substations at Emaar Properties' first and second construction areas.

"Even at full capacity utilisation, we always maintain reserves of at least 15 per cent. Our average daily peak consumption has varied between 2,400mw in summer and 1,200 in the colder period, which even dropped to around 750mw.

"Our costs are not an issue - our selling cost for power is still cheaper than in the UK, the U.S., or Germany. Within Dewa, what we are looking for is more effective use of the gas turbines and emission."