Harbouring ambitions

Tony Douglas says KPIZ will be important in presenting a breadth of opportunities in line with Abu Dhabi's 2030 strategy.
[More Images]

Utilities
As the groundwork for the project progresses apace, the ADPC has started to focus on the utilities infrastructure needed to service a major harbour and industrial park.

In March, Larsen and Toubro began works for the design, construction, testing and commissioning of an electrical, medium voltage power supply for Phase 1A of the port.

The company’s primary role was to install a 33kV power cable network and three 33kV / 11kV primary substations to provide the main power supply throughout the industrial zone.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

Meanwhile, Ed Zublin AG and Al Jaber Transport and General Contracting will be responsible for implementing the site-wide utilities infrastructure, including all of the major electrical, drainage, sewage and potable water networks.

In the pipeline
At the time of writing, the ADPC is in the process of procuring key utilities infrastructure contracts for the first part of the industrial zone.

Area A will be divided into three packages, to be awarded separately. The packages include all core infrastructure work, ranging from roadwork, sewage systems to sea water cooling.

“We are currently in the process of procuring the contracts for the primary road, infrastructure and utilities works in area A,” says Groens.

“So that basically involves work on the roads, utilities, sewage, sea water cooling, and telecoms systems in the primary corridors. We have divided the area into three parts and will be awarding three separate packages, although the contracts will be fairly general in terms of the work involved.”

“We are still going through the bidding stage so we cannot say anything about the costs of the contracts. This will be announced within the next few months,” adds Groens.

The company has committed a total of AED 26.5 billion to Phase A of the project, which encompasses the construction of the first phase of the harbour, and the industrial Area A.

Of this, around AED 13 billion will be spent on the construction of the port. So far, only AED 8 billion already committed and another AED 18.5 billion worth of contracts yet to be awarded.

The ADPC hopes to have a clearer idea about the seawater cooling by mid November, when it will have worked out a phasing plan for the industrial zone. The zone will be populated by industry only gradually, with different types of industry having different cooling requirements.

The industrial zone will be divided into seven clusters, most of which will be mixed to strike a balance between downstream and upstream industries.

In July, the plans for the petrochemical cluster were thrown into disarray when the Abu Dhabi National Chemicals Company (ChemaWEyaat) announced it would not serve as the anchor tenant in the KPIZ, looking instead to establish a chemical complex in Ruwais, closer to an oil refinery that provides its energy feedstock.

For the rest of the infrastructure, more certainty exists. The area will need a total of 246km of piping of various sizes, 126 km of cabling, for 33kV and 11kV and a total of 13 33kV / 11kV low voltage substations. The harbour will require a total of 33 low voltage substations.

To cater for the whole complex, Transco has already built a high voltage substation transforming 220kV into 33kV. Once the transmission and distribution and water infrastructure has been completed, it will be handed over to the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea) by the ADPC.

The authority will then be responsible for maintaining the infrastructure, for servicing the industrial customers. Adwea estimates that the project requires a capacity of around 750MW, according to an ADPC spokesman.

This would be sufficient to power the port infrastructure, industrial zone infrastructure, construction, projected port tenants and projected industrial zone tenants.

Keen to see its project succeed, the ADPC will be hoping that maximum capacity will be needed sooner rather than later.