A view of the 2,000MW Sabiya Combined Cycle Power Plant completed 

by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Kuwait in 2011. (photo: HHI)

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world’s biggest shipbuilder and a leading industrial plant contractor, and Sidem, a subsidiary of Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, have signed a $1.4 billion EPC contract with SHAMAL AZ-ZOUR AL-OULA to build the first phase of the Az-Zour North Independent Water and Power Project (IWPP) in Kuwait.

HHI, as the EPC consortium leader, said on Dec. 15 it will carry out the construction of the gas-fired 1,500 MW combined cycle power plant. Sidem, as EPC consortium partner, will construct a 107 MIGD (486,000m3/day) desalination water plant on a turnkey basis. The capacity of Az-Zour North will account for around 10 percent of Kuwait’s installed power generation capacity and around 20 percent of its installed desalination capacity.

The consortium will complete the project approximately 100 km south of Kuwait City in the fourth quarter of 2016. Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) will be the off-taker of power and water produced from the project under a 40-year Energy Conversion and Water Purchase Agreement (ECWPA). The project is the first independent water and power project in Kuwait developed as part of long-term expansion plans of the power and water production capacity in Kuwait and a pathfinder scheme for Kuwait’s public-private partnership (PPP) program.