Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC) will expand its production capacity by building a plant with an installed capacity of 2,400MW of power and 130m gallons of desalinated water per day.
Fahad Al Muhannadi, General Manager, made the announcement during an interview with Al Sharq yesterday. The plant will be in Umm Al Haul. “We expect to award the contract within next three months. Four companies have expressed interest to participate in the bidding process,” Al Muhannadi said.
According to reports, Qatar’s current power generation capacity is 8,700MW, while the expected peak load during summer this year is about 6,800MW, which means there is a surplus capacity of about 2,000MW. All power stations are fully equipped and prepared to operate at full capacity to meet the peak demand during the summer which coincides with Ramadan when demand for electricity and water is expected to increase. Given Qatar’s increasing population and rapid growth in economic activities, demand for utilities has been increasing over the past several years and the company is busy enhancing its production capacity in advance to keep pace with demand.
Established in 1990, QEWC is the first private sector company in the region, engaged in the generation of electricity and desalinated water supplied to Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation — Kahramaa — the sole distributor of utilities in the country.