The National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) has recently launched an open request for bids to design, build, and operate two units of gas turbines, each with a production capacity of around 450 megawatts.
The units will be located near the “Al Wahda” dam in the Taounate province of Morocco.
According to the request for proposals, the two units will operate in the combined cycle process using natural gas secured through the Moroccan-European gas pipeline.
The estimated cost of this project is approximately 5.8 billion dirhams, with 5.3 billion dirhams allocated for construction and 536 million dirhams for maintenance during the first five years of operation.
The new power plant’s gas turbines will be of the bi-fuel type, using natural gas as the primary fuel and gas as a backup fuel. The reserve fuel will only be used in the event of a natural gas supply interruption for national network security reasons and for a limited number of hours.
The electricity produced by the new station will be pumped into the national electrical network through 400-kilovolt lines established for this purpose by the ONEE. The winning company will be responsible for building a station with this capacity.
The envelopes will be opened to settle the deal on July 11th of this year, with a project site visit for competitors scheduled for May 15th.
The ONEE has two electricity generation stations, “Tahdarat” in the north and the solar thermal station “Ain Bani Muthar” in the eastern border, which use liquefied natural gas imported from the international market.
The two stations previously used natural gas imported from Algeria through the European Maghreb pipeline, but supply stopped in 2021 after Algeria decided not to renew the contract.
Morocco has secured its natural gas supply by purchasing liquefied natural gas in the international market and using the gas infrastructure of Spanish players to support the country’s electricity production capacity.
The ONEE is also linked to a long-term contract to purchase electricity from the “Taqa Morocco” company, which operates the Jorf Lasfar thermal station until 2044.
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