Dewa awards Siemens power and desalination plant contract worth Dh1.4bn

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has awarded Germany’s Siemens a Dh1.47 billion contract to expand the emirate’s biggest power and water desalination plant by 2018.

Siemens will add 700 megawatts to the M-Station, boosting its capacity to 2,700MW, a company statement said.

The plant, built at a cost of Dh10bn, currently produces 140 million imperial gallons of desalinated water per day and 2,060MW of electricity.

The expansion of M-Station will increase Dubai’s installed power capacity to 10,356MW.

“The expansion project includes adding two gas turbine generators, two heat recovery steam turbine generators, and one back pressure steam turbine,” said the Dewa managing director and chief executive Saeed Al Tayer. “This will increase the plant’s thermal efficiency from 82.4 per cent to 85.8 per cent, which is considered among the highest thermal efficiency rates in the world.”

Dewa’s annual profit rose 12.7 per cent to Dh5.48bn last year, benefiting from an increase in connections, the growth of its cooling business and cheaper financing.

The utility provider’s revenues grew last year to Dh17.8bn, an 8 per cent annual increase. Dewa’s revenue from its district cooling business rose by 78 per cent year-on-year to Dh1.5bn, reflecting the new revenue from Palm Utilities, acquired from Istithmar World for $300 million.

The acquisition made Dewa the world’s largest district cooling provider.

Dewa said last month that it was revising its targets for solar power higher to account for 15 per cent of total capacity by 2030, up from 5 per cent previously, thanks to falling costs.

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