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Tribune News Network
Doha
Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC) attaches great importance to meet Qatar's power and water needs without any potential outage.
The company has been implementing many mega projects both within and outside the country in pursuit of that objective. While its local projects strive to meet the power and water needs of the country, external projects support QEWC's investment agenda and global expansion.
QEWC aspires achieve more internally and externally by increasing the diversification of energy production sources in Qatar and increasing its share in the global energy markets.
In an exclusive interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA), QEWC's General Manager and Managing Director Fahad bin Hamad al Mohannadi said the company was implementing several projects inside and outside Qatar.
The Umm Al Houl Energy Project is an examples of its project in Qatar. The fully completed project has a power generation capacity of 2,520 MW and water desalination capacity of 136.5 million gallons per day. This is one of the largest projects in the region and covers about 31 percent of the electricity and 40 percent of the water needs in Qatar, Mohannadi said, adding that the project was completed on time and within the expected cost.
Regarding overseas projects, he said Nebras Power Company has undertaken a number of construction projects and acquisition for power plants distributed in various geographical areas such as Oman, Jordan and Indonesia.
These plants, he said, use different types of fuels, including gas, diesel and solar energy. Nebras Power has been able to build a power investment portfolio of 1,115 MW within a short period, he added.
He also noted that QEWC, in cooperation with the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa), is building electricity and water desalination plants to meet the growing demand. The company is also seeking to develop its capabilities by diversifying sources of energy, including renewable energies, such as solar energy and waste energy production, he underlined.
Mohannadi said the company, in cooperation with Qatar Petroleum, has established Siraj Solar Energy company, which in turn intends to establish the first project to produce electricity from solar energy, which will be implemented before 2020 with a total capacity of 700 MW. This project is one of the largest projects in the region and is expected to be implemented in two phases.
The first phase, he said, is expected to be completed in December 2020 with an initial production capacity of 350 MW of electricity, while the second phase ” with a capacity of 350 MW ” is expected to be over in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The company is also negotiating with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment to launch a project to convert waste into electrical energy with a capacity of up to 200 MW, he said.
Muhannadi said the implementation of projects in the electricity and water production sector is not affected by the unjust siege imposed on Qatar.
All the techniques and equipment required to complete such projects are imported directly from the international markets, he said. The Umm Al Houl Energy Project, at the beginning of the siege, was only 50 percent complete but was fully completed within the deadline and estimated cost.
Besides, he said the operation of the existing plants also was not affected by the unjust siege due to the availability of spare parts in the international markets.
The plants' dependence on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) for its fuel needs also helped as LNG is supplied to them by Qatar Petroleum, which is the largest producer of liquefied natural gas in the world.
