Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has spent about QR7bn on its ongoing projects in the first nine months of 2009.
Giving this information yesterday at the annual forum hosted by the corporation at Grand Hayat Hotel, HE the Minister of State for Energy Dr Mohamed Saleh al-Sada told a gathering comprising many senior officials that several steps would be initiated in the coming years to boost the water and electricity production in Qatar.
“As in the previous years, the corporation would not spare any efforts in future also to meet the increasing water and power requirements of the country’s residents,” he said.
“Through rational utilisation of our resources, the corporation has been able to deliver high quality services to its customers,” the minister said.
Recalling that a lot of initiatives were made in the last one decade to boost water and electricity sectors in the country, Dr al-Sada said the setting up of new plants in Ras Girtas and Mesaieed would help the country generate more power and water in the next two years.
The minister said Kahramaa’s expansion plans in the next five years were made in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030. “While taking into account the needs and requirements of the country’s people in the next five years, we also look at what the country’s residents would need to meet their requirements after a decade or so,” he said.
Speaking later at the meeting, Kahramaa’s acting managing director Essa Hilal al-Kuwari said the 2,730mw Ras Girtas project would be ready for final commissioning in April 2011.
The project is already generating 1,690mw of electricity and 20mn gallons of water a day, he said. When it is fully ready, the project would generate 63mn gallons of water too, the gathering was told. The integrated water and electricity project, being built at a cost of more than QR3.5bn is said to be one of the largest in the Middle East.
The acting managing director said the country has more than 232,000 consumers for electricity and 178,000 consumers for water. Compared to the previous year, there is already a growth in demand of 14% for electricity this year, he said. “Similarly, demand for water went up by 7%, added al-Kuwari.
The Kahramaa official said the 2,007mw Mesaieed project would be fully ready in the middle of next year. Already the project is generating 1,000mw of power.
The Ras Abu Fontas A project would be generating 45mn gallons of water a day by April next year, he said.
Al-Kuwari said that an ambitious marine cabling project linking Pearl Qatar island with Ras Abu Fontas is underway. “Most of its work has already been completed,” he said.
The senior corporation official said the network expansion of several 220kv and 400kv cable lines are underway in different parts of the country. Al-Kuwari added that the work on more than 140 major sub-stations was being completed at various parts of Qatar.
“Many of them have already started working this year, he said.
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