The facility D project of the Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa), popularly being known as Umm Al Houl IWPP, has been named recently the best PPP Deal of the Year 2016 in the Middle East and Africa by the Projects Finance International, a leading source of global project and infrastructure finance news, data and tools associated with Thomson Reuters.
The Roll of Honour for Kahramaa’s project has been felicitated under Middle East and Africa category at PFI Awards ceremony that took place recently in London.
Kahramaa as the Procuring Authority on Facility D (Umm Al Houl) has been honoured for demonstrating the highest standards of project execution and Build- Operate- Transfer (BOT) procurement. The International accolade reflects Kahramaa’s commitment to maintain its highest operational and functional standards at all level including its role as a leading project sponsor. Kahramaa’ aspires ever to be a role model while executing complex projects for the benefit of all involved parties.
Facility D, structured as a BOOT type Public- Private Partnership (PPP) has set a number of noteworthy precedents for the State of Qatar. It is the first PPP project to embrace the “Strategic National Investor” (SNI) model developed by the Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa). It also establishes the commercial viability for Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology for Qatar as evidenced by the high level of interest from all major global RO developers at the bidding stage of the procurement.
Umm Al Houl is the largest IWPP incorporating both RO and thermal desalination technology with an IPP in Qatar and one of the largest in the region. From a financing perspective, the project validates the attractiveness of long term project financing as a source of private funding for large national infrastructure projects.
