Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP), a member of the Nama Group, has announced that launch of two solar Independent Power Projects (IPPs) in Oman, namely: Manah Solar I IPP and Manah Solar II IPP
This launch follows the successful tendering of OPWP?s first utility-scale solar IPP (Ibri II Solar project), which was awarded in April 2019 with targeted commercial operation date of June 2021.
The procurement of Manah Solar I and Manah Solar II IPPs supports the government?s policy of encouraging the use of renewable energy to meet the growing demand for electricity in Oman. The implementation of these projects will follow the successful IPP model established in Oman, using a transparent competition process to award the contracts to two highly qualified private sector companies providing world-class technology solutions.
The two projects will be built, owned and operated by the private sector and the project scope includes financing, procurement, engineering, construction, operation and maintenance. Each project will attract multiple hundreds of millions of dollars of investment.
The projects will be located adjacent to each other at a Manah site about 150 km from Muscat. Each project will have a generating capacity of between 500 MW and 600 MW. It is planned that the project award will be in Q3 2020 and that the projects will be commercially operational by Q4 2022.
With Oman?s continuous growth, the implementation of wider-scale solar power projects based on the IPP model will enable OPWP to achieve its goals of sustainably delivering power generation capacity. The sector will aim to implement solar power projects with a focus on building local capacity in line with the sustainability strategy of the Nama Group.
