Two international consortia and a US company have been shortlisted as the final three bidders for Abu Dhabi's third independent water and power project, the Shuweihat 1 Power and Desalination plant, according to a report in a local newspaper.

'We expect the signing to take place by end of July,' the Gulf News quoted an official of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea) as saying.

The three finalists include CMS Energy and the UK's National Power which form one consortium and the joint alliance of Tractabel with Japan's Mitsui and Company, and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco). The third finalist is AES Corp of the US which is bidding alone.

A final selection will be made in July. In February, eight international companies bidding for the Shuweihat project were told to submit better proposals.

Once a winner is chosen, the banks are expected to arrange financing of $1.3 billion over a 15-year period.

The Shuweihat 1 project involves setting up a cogeneration plant with 1,500 MW of electrical generating capacity and 100 million gallons per day of water and associated infrastructure.