Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea) has started commercial operations at its Dh5.4-billion ($1.46 billion) Mirfa independent water and power plant (IWPP) located about 110 km from the UAE capital in the Dhafra region.

The plant is the 10th facility to be built under the public-private partnership model in Abu Dhabi. The French utility company Engie holds a 20 per cent equity interest in the project while Adwea has 60 per cent and Abu Dhabi Financial Group the remaining 20 per cent.

The plant boasts a power generation capacity of 1,600 MW and 52 million gallons of desalinated water per day. With the launch of operations at the Mirfa IWPP, Abu Dhabi is now producing 960 million gallons of water and 16,922 MW electricity, he added.

Developed under a full turnkey engineering, procurement and commissioning contract (EPC), the project integrates the acquisition of an existing 22.5 million-gallons-per-day water production facilities and associated infrastructure along with the acquisition, refurbishment, erection and commissioning of four GE 9E gas turbines with a combined net capacity of 360 MW.