The United Arab Emirates is 50 years old this year. When it was formed, in 1971, its population was around 273,000. In the space of just five decades, some 9.9 million now call it home – 88 per cent of them expats. 

As the UAE celebrates, it has set out its plans for the ‘Next 50 years’ – including partnering with the global private sector to invest in a PPP roadmap to a secure future, across key sectors. 

Mohammed Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, has said the road to 2071 calls for full collaboration among public, semi-private and private sectors, under an integrated system, and a series of strategic projects are being rolled out under the action plan to bolster the country's key and emerging sectors. Health, energy, waste, and transport are among the top priorities for this new 2071 vision. 

Some $7.6 billion is already invested in four of the top five Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects listed here, all in the energy sector, under construction in the UAE and, during the first quarter of 2022, the global Emirates Investment Summit will take place, designed to connect investment funds with private sectors globally. 

In the shorter term, officials believe PPP deals could play a critical role in helping the region recover from the Covid-19 slump, and they’ve put their money on it. 

The UAE government portal states that “the PPP model would serve the UAE’s goals and agenda in implementing a sustainable, competitive-economy based on knowledge, expertise and diversity. It would serve the public interest from the integration of efforts, fund, expertise and technologies of both the government entities and the private partners.  

“In addition, it is an ideal option to render efficient commodities and services at a lower cost and to make use of the private sector’s capabilities and efficiency.” 

The UAE is also fully committed to lowering its carbon footprint and moving to renewable energy sources and is gearing up to generate at least 27 percent of total power generation from low carbon technologies, using private sector expertise and international capital in long-term partnerships between the public and private sectors. 

Here are the top 5 PPP projects in the UAE today: 

1. Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park - Phase 4 

Location: Dubai 

Public partner: Dubai Electricity & Water Authority: 

Private partners: ACWA Power, Silk Road Fund. DEWA owns 51 percent of the project company, Noor Energy 1, with ACWA Power owning 25 percent and the Silk Road Fund owning the rest.  

Estimated cost: $4.3 billion 

Status: Under construction 

Expected completion: Q2 2022 

The 950-megawatt (MW) fourth phase is the largest single-site Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and single hybrid solar power project in the world based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model. Phase 4 will use three technologies to produce clean energy: 600MW from a parabolic basin complex, 100MW from a concentrated solar tower, and 250MW from photovoltaic panels. The project also incorporates the world's largest global thermal storage capacity of 15 hours, allowing energy availability round-the-clock. 

2. Mirfa Seawater Treatment & Transportation Facility 

Public Partner: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) 

Private Partners: Yet to be appointed

Location: Abu Dhabi 

Estimated cost: $2.5 billion 

Status: Planning stage 

Expected completion: Q4 2024 

The project involves the development, financing, construction, operation, maintenance, and ownership of two standalone greenfield seawater nanofiltration plants with a combined treatment capacity of approximately 210 million imperial gallons a day together with pumping stations and transmission pipelines to transport the treated water to onshore oilfields, requiring approximately 450 kilometres of new pipeline infrastructure. The two plants will be located at greenfield sites at Al Mirfa and Al Nouf (previously known as Al Dabbiya), to the west of the city of Abu Dhabi.  

The mega-project will replace the current aquifer water injection systems used for maintaining reservoir pressure in all onshore oil fields in Abu Dhabi, and result in net reduction of carbon dioxide. The project, which will be executed on BOOT basis, will be backed by a Long-Term Water Treatment and Transportation Agreement (WTTA) with ADNOC as sole buyer of the water produced by the project. 

In October, Saudi English language newspaper Arab News had reported, quoting CNBC Arabia, that ADNOC is to divide the project into two separate projects, with costs set to more than double, to about $5 billion. Last month, UAE-based Energy & Utilities industry news portal reported that ADNOC has prequalified 11 companies for the scheme. 

3. Dubai Waste Treatment Centre 

Location: Dubai 

Public Partner: Dubai Municipality 

Private Partners: BESIX, Tech Group, Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), ITOCHU Corporation, DUBAL Holding and Dubai Holding  

Estimated cost: $1.2 billion 

Status: Under construction 

Expected completion: Q4 2024 

The project is billed as one of the world’s largest waste-to-energy plants to be built in a single phase and is being developed in Al Warsan 2. It will treat 1.9 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually and generate up to 200 MW of thermal electricity, which will be fed to the local power grid. The project involves financing, design, construction, and operations and maintenance of the facility for 35 years, and will be executed on a build, own, transfer (BOT) basis. In November, Dubai Municipality announced that 45 percent of the project has been completed. The statement also noted that 35 MWh will be used to operate the Warsan Wastewater Treatment Plant, where all the water used in the project will be recycled at a rate of 2,760 cubic metres per day, while 20 MWh will be used to operate the Dubai Waste Treatment Centre. 

4. Hamriyah Combined Cycle Independent Power Plant (IPP) 

Location: Sharjah 

Public Partner: Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) 

Private Partners: Consortium of Sumitomo, Energy Financial Services (a unit of GE Capital), Shikoku Electric Power Company, and Sharjah Asset Management (SAM), a subsidiary of the Sharjah government. 

Estimated cost: $1.13 billion 

Status: Under construction 

Expected completion: Q1 2023 

The project is Sharjah emirate's first IPP project and involves the conversion of the existing Hamriyah Power Plant to a Combined Cycle Power Plant including capacity of 1,800 MW. Energy Financial Services and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with SEWA in 2018. The co-developers along with Shikoku Electric Power Company and Sharjah Asset Management, the investment arm of the Sharjah Government, formed a joint venture company - Sharjah Hamriyah Independent Power Company (SHIPCO) – in 2019 to build, own and operate the project. 

The scope of work also includes three 9HA.01 gas turbines, three steam turbines, six generators, three heat recovery steam generators, which will have three combined cycle blocks of three 600 megawatts (MW) each. The first is expected to be operational by November 2021. The second stage is expected to be completed in February 2022, while the third stage will come online in February 2023. In June 2021, GE Gas Power, the project’s contractor, had announced that it is 75 percent complete. 

5. Al Dhafra Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Independent Power Producer (IPP) project 

Public Partner: Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) 

Private Partners: Consortium led by Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) with Masdar, EDF Renouvelables and Jinko Power. TAQA owns 40 percent of the project, while the remaining partners have a 20 percent stake each. 

Location: Abu Dhabi 

Estimated cost: $1 billion 

Status: Under construction 

Expected completion: Q4 2022 

The project involves the construction of a 2,000 MW greenfield photovoltaic power generation plant that will cover an area spanning approximately 20 square kilometres in Al Dhafra region, Abu Dhabi. The project involves financing, construction, operation and maintenance of the solar plant under a 30-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with EWEC. This will be oil-rich emirate's second solar power plant in Abu Dhabi after the existing 1.2 GW ‘Noor Abu Dhabi’ solar plant. The competitive bidding for the project led to one of the most competitive tariffs for solar power, set at $1.35 cents/kWh), which upon financial closing, was further improved to $1.32 cents/kWh, primarily driven by hedging and financing cost improvements, in addition to other optimisation efforts. The plant will deploy the latest in crystalline, bifacial solar technology, which will enable it to provide more efficient electricity by capturing solar irradiation from both the front and backside of the panel. 

(Writing by Senthil Palaisamy; Editing by Charles Lavery & Anoop Menon) 

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com) 

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