KUWAIT: Kuwait will invite partners to help develop several power projects over the next 20 years. The projects include two more adjuncts to the Al-Zour power plant, as well as power plants in Khairan, Shaqaya and Dibdiba. The total expected capacity for the projects will reach 7,500, reported Reuters quoting Fadheela Al-Hassan, head of the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects.

The power plants will be built utilizing Kuwait's public-private partnership program which aims to allow development with foreign investors while protecting Kuwait's sovereignty and financial interests. According to the PPP law, 50 percent company shares will be allocated to Kuwaiti citizens, while between 26 percent and 44 percent is allocated to a Kuwaiti or foreign strategic investor. The Kuwait government retains ownership of the remainder.

Kuwait's electricity capacity is estimated at 17,000 MW, and about 14,000 MW are scheduled to be added over the next twenty years, according to Kuwaiti media. Al-Hassan expects the "financial closing" of the Al-Debdiba and Al-Shaqaya project will be in 2026, including the awarding of strategic investors and the establishment of project companies, Reuters reports. Qualification procedures for the projects may begin in fourth quarter 2021.

Last August, the Shamal Az-Zour Al-Oula Power & Water Company, the public-private partnership company that owns and operates Kuwait's first independent water and power project (IWPP), Al-Zour North 1, started trading on the Kuwait bourse. Despite hiccups and delays in the PPP process, Kuwait has plans to move forward with several over the coming period.