The 600,000 cubic metres/day (m3/day) capacity Shuaibah 3 Independent Water Project (IWP), located near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has achieved its first potable water production milestone.

The announcement was made by the project’s off-taker, Saudi Water Partnerships Company (SWPC), on its account on the social messaging platform X last week.

The project involves the conversion of the existing Shuaibah 3 Independent Water and Power Plant (IWPP) to an energy-efficient and greenfield seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant.

SWPC said the project achieved 10 million safe working hours without injuries.

It is scheduled to start commercial operations in May 2025, accompanied by Shuaibah IWPP ceasing operations this year.

The MSF-to-SWRO conversion agreement was signed in June 2022 by SWPC, ACWA Power and Shuaibah Water Electricity Company (SWEC), the IWPP’s project company. Additionally, new 25-year Water Purchase Agreement (WPA) was signed between SWPC and the consortium of ACWA Power and Public Investment Fund (PIF)-owned Badeel, which is implementing the IWP project.

In August 2022, South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility was awarded the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for Shuaibah 3 IWP by the project’s SPV Shuaibah Three Water Desalination Company, owned 68 percent by ACWA Power and 32 percent by PIF-owned Water and Electricity Holding Company (WEHC).

The financial close for the $821 million project was achieved in October 2022, according to ACWA Power’s website.

Previous press statements by Doosan and ACWA Power noted that the IWP would be partially powered by a 60 megawatts (MW) solar PV plant, which will reduce electricity consumption from the grid by 45 per cent.

Doosan pegged the value of the EPC contract at 840 billion Korean won ($573 million).

(Writing by Deva Palanisamy; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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