Kuwait looks to public-private partnerships for energy projects that will help end the power crisis

The acting director general of Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects, KAPP, said that Kuwait hopes new energy projects, involving both state and private investors, will help it tackle its power shortage. One of these contracts is due to be awarded in the next few weeks.

Kuwait, a country that is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has suffered from a severe shortage of electricity due to rapid population growth, urbanization, increasing temperatures, and delays with maintenance of some power plants.

In order to reduce the burden, the government has been implementing planned power cuts since last year.

KAPP Public Partnership Projects framework allows companies to be set up in order to execute projects that are managed by a partner. The Kuwaiti partner can be a foreign investor or a group of investors. They are allocated between 26% and 44% of he company's shares.

Kuwaiti citizens are offered the remaining 50% of the stake, while the rest is retained by the government. The government buys back the goods and services that are produced.

Asmaa al-Mousa, KAPP's acting general director, said that the authority was looking at a number of projects which would "ease the financial burden for the state budget as the costs will be covered by the private sector".

She said that the Khairan Power Project, Dabdaba, and Shagaya Renewable Energy Project, and phases two and three for the Al-Zour North Power Plant are among the highest priority projects. These are expected to receive awards "within a few weeks" and then the implementation process will start.

The Al-Zour North Project will be completed in three years and produce 2.7 gigawatts of electricity (GW) as well as 120 million gallons per day of water using combined-cycle technologies.

Al-Mousa stated that she hoped to launch the tenders of phases one and two for the Dabdaba-Shagaya Renewable Energy Project before the end 2025.

The qualification process for Phase One, with a capacity of 1.1 GW has been completed. Companies are invited to submit requests to qualify for Phase Two, which aims at producing 500 megawatts.

By 2030, the four phases of Dabdaba-Shagaya are expected to generate a total of 4.5 GW. Ahmed Hagagy is the reporter. (Editing by Jane Merriman.

(source: Reuters)