Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) recently awarded contracts worth a total of Dh2.15 billion ($585.2 million) in the power and water sectors.

A contract worth Dh871 million ($237 million) was awarded to a joint venture between Acciona Agua and Belhasa Six Construct (Besix) for the construction of a seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO)-based desalination plant at Jebel Ali.

The 40-million gallons per day (mgpd) capacity plant will use two pass reverse osmosis (RO) technology, and is expected to be commissioned by May 2020. The project is in line with Dewa’s decoupling plans for water desalination and power production using solar energy.

In the power sector, Dewa has awarded contracts worth Dh1.28 billion to construct four 400/132 kV substations, adding to its existing tally of 21 such substations.

The projects include a Dh314.93-million contract to Grid Solution SAS to build the Canal Garden Station, scheduled to be completed by February 2020; and a Dh323.04 million contract to Siemens for the Dubai South station substation.

The third Dh304.54-million contract for the Dubai North station went to Al Fanar Company. It is expected to be completed by January 2021.

The fourth one is a Dh338.87-million contract to ABB for Shams station, meant to meet growing load demand resulting from the planned expansion of the 1,500 MW power production capacity using photovoltaic (PV) panels at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. This is expected to be completed by December 2020.

Dewa’s strategy is to invest Dh81 billion over the next five years to meet the energy needs of the emirate.