More power supply
to be added this month

Plans to build Jiyeh plant

with 500 MW capacities

Jiyeh power plant will be officially launched on July 2 by the Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW). The plant has been in trial operation since a few weeks.

Danish firm ‘Burmeister and Wain Scandinavian Contractor’ (BWSC) in a joint venture with the German firm MAN is the project’s contractor. It conducted testing and commissioning works to link the new plant to the grid.

Construction of the plant had begun in 2013, and has been built and ready for use since July 2015. Problems between the contractor and the Ministry of Finance delayed the actual operation of the plant. The plant is now operated by a joint venture including Operational Energy Group (OEG), Turkish firm Arkay Limited, and local firm Middle East Power.

It will have a total production capacity of 78.2 MW.

The €84 million ($93) million plant was funded by a loan from the Denmark-based Export Credit Fund (EKF) through HSBC. German MVV Decon is supervising the works.

Two weeks ago the Ministry launched a new unit of Zouk power plant, which has a total power production of 194 MW, at a cost of €185 million ($204 million). It is also funded by EKF and built by BWSC.

The two plants combined have increased total power supply to an additional three hours per day.

The ministry also had plans to restore the old Jiyeh and Zouk power plants. But according to Karim Osseiran, Advisor at MoEW, the plan to restore the old Jiyeh plant has been amended. The Public Works Parliamentary Commission had, in a recent meeting, recommended to abandon the idea of rehabilitating the Jiyeh plant, due to the high cost that the project would entail.

Instead, the ministry is preparing studies to dismantle the old plant, which has a nominal capacity of 320 MW, but is currently producing only 100 MW. He said the ministry is planning to build a new Jiyeh power plant with capacity of 500 MW.

Osseiran said that the funds provided by the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development for that project will be transferred to the restoration of Zouk plant which has capacity of 600 MW.

More projects for power plants are anticipated in Deir Ammar as well as in Zahrani and Selaata, which would be operated by gas. The import of natural gas will start by 2018, according to the MoEW.