A request for qualifications (RFQ) has been issued by the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) for the development of two independent solar power projects.

The Manah Solar I and Manah Solar II IPPs are expected to generate between 500MW to 600MW and will be located approximately 150km from Muscat.

The scope of the projects includes financing, procurement, engineering, construction, operation and maintenance. Each project will attract investment of multiple hundreds of million dollars, OPWP said.

The RFQs were issued following the successful tendering of OPWP’s first utility scale solar IPP (Ibri II Solar project), which was awarded in April this year. The project is slated to begin commercial operations in June 2021.

OPWP says that these new projects will follow in the footsteps of successful IPP models established in Oman. The firm says a transparent competition process will be held to award the contracts to two highly qualified private sector companies delivering cutting edge technology solutions.

The firm says that the implementation of solar projects based on the IPP model will allow it to meet its objectives of sustainably providing power generation capacity, as the Oman market continues to grow.

The project contracts will be awarded in Q3 2020 and the IPPs are set to be commercially operational by Q4 2022. The last date for submitting bids is 29 July.