Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC) has appointed Mott MacDonald as project engineer for the QR1.8 billion ($520 million) Ras Abu Fontas B2 (RAF B2) power and water plant, an extension to the existing B plant located near Doha.
The plant will help meet Qatar’s increasing power and water demand, which is expected to increase by 10 per cent per year for power and 9 per cent per year for water for the next five years.
RAF B2, which is being developed by a consortium including General Electric and FISIA Italimpianti under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, will produce 597 MW of electric power from three GE Frame 9FA gas turbines. Two heat recovery boilers will supply steam to two multistage flash distillers enabling them to produce 30 million gallons of desalinated water per day.
Mott MacDonald’s role involves providing design review and construction monitoring services during construction of the plant and warrantee management services during the three-year defects liability period ending in July 2010. It had assisted with the tender evaluation and award of the EPC contact.
The plant will be completed in time to meet peak demand in the summer of 2007.
Mott MacDonald has been working with QEWC on the Ras Abu Fontas site since 1973 when the first plant Ras Abu Fontas A was built. This relationship has been sustained by the company’s involvement in Phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the A station and Phase B and B2 of the B station, totalling nearly 2,000 MW of installed generation.
In another Mott MacDonald-related development, the company will provide project management services to the new float glass manufacturing facility to be set up by Emirates Float Glass (EFG) in Abu Dhabi.
EFG, a Dubai Investments greenfield venture, will produce 600 tonnes of glass per day.
Khalid Kalban, managing director and CEO of Dubai Investment, signed the project management agreement on behalf of EFG, and Gordon Turley, the regional director of Mott MacDonald, signed for his firm.
“The upcoming manufacturing facility at Abu Dhabi will be built as per international standards, and most of the agreements towards the successful execution of the project have been already signed,” said Kalban. “This will also bring in a high level of professionalism, essential to carry out the envisioned goals,” he added.
Mott MacDonald is a management, engineering and development consultancy with over 8,000 staff. The business spans the globe with around 150 company, site and associate offices in over 100 countries across Europe, Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas.
