Global IWPP Summit: Nurturing partnerships in power and water

The opening day, Monday, 1st October, 2012 was inaugurated by The Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, who graced the summit with his presence and went on to tour the exhibition spaces set up by leading technology providers from across the globe.

The final day was higlighted by an agreement signing for one of the greenest power projects the GCC has ever seen. Over 100 participants each day were witness to key presentations delivered by the foremost experts in the Middle East utilities market.

The summit reinforced the need to develop and strengthen the utility sector in the Middle East. With an expected power demand of over 20000MW in the next 5 years coupled with an 8% growth in the water demand in the U.A.E, exploring a renewable and sustainable model with proven results is the need of the hour. An IWPP (Independent Water And Power Plant) represents a model that is built on a platform which nurtures consumer focused development, builds efficiency through the value chain and develops partnerships while reducing subsidies. A dynamic mix of partnership models that include Government bodies, developers and private financiers were seen as market drivers that will allow faster project implementation and quicker response to market requirements.

Involving the private sector in power generation encourages public resources to be redirected to other development priorities while also inviting new technology integrators into the GCC utility market.

The final day of the summit ended on a high note when UTICO Middle East, a leading full services utilities provider, and Shanghai Electric, one of the largest diversified equipment manufacturing groups, announced a joint collaboration to establish the world's greenest coal-fired power plant in Ras Al Khaimah.

Mr. Rashid Mehran Al Baloushi, Chairman of UTICO and Mr. HanYoutian, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Electric signed the Dhs1.5bn agreement to implement the project which will deliver 270 MW of power by 2015 to the Ras Al Khaimah region.

The agreement signing in the presence of Ras Al Khaimah Government dignitaries, has been a true indication of what the summit set out to achieve - A fostering partnership to sustain one and all.