In an effort to ensure water security in the country, the Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) is undertaking a $3bn project designed to provide seven days of strategic water storage within its network.
“The Water Security Mega Reservoirs project is one of the largest of its kind in the world and will increase the capacity of water storage (in Qatar) by 10 times,” said Kahramaa technical director Ahmed al-Naser. “The storage capacity will be about 3,500mn gallons.”
While Qatar’s power situation is comfortable, the country has some of the smallest water reserves in the world.
The new reservoirs project will shore up the country’s reserve supplies and protect against
any disruptions in provision.
Also to meet the growing demand for water and electricity, Kahramaa has planned an independent water and power plant (IWPP) with a power generation capacity of 2,400MW and a desalination capacity of
130mn g/d.
Known as Facility D, the IWPP will be located at the Qatar Economic Zone near Doha. The desalination component of the plant will partly use reverse osmosis (RO) technology, the first time the country has employed it on a large-scale scheme.
“Though Qatar has one of the biggest power reserve margins in the GCC and the reserves have enabled it to sell electricity to neighbouring countries, Kahramaa is aware that the growing demand must be adequately met with appropriate planning and preparations, as well as promoting efficient use of electricity and water,” he said.
“With one of the biggest power reserve margins in the GCC, Qatar is able to keep up with growing demand for power and water as preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup accelerate.”
Even though power demand growth has regularly exceeded 10% over the past five years, Qatar’s installed capacity of 8,761MW was comfortably able to deal with the peak usage of 6,255MW recorded in 2012.
Having a reserve cushion is part of Qatar’s long-term initiative toward developing a sustainable energy and water strategy, which will be one of the highlights of the discussions at the forthcoming Qatar Energy and Water Efficiency Conference in Doha.
“Current indications in our strategic and technical planning show that in the next five years, there will be a need for additional capacity – with huge schemes planned everywhere – particularly in preparation for the (FIFA 2022) World Cup. For the past three years, many of the projects were in the planning stage, but now we are seeing them start, including port and metro schemes and many others,” said al-Naser.
In hosting the Qatar Energy and Water Efficiency conference, Kahramaa hopes to continue to refine the country’s water and energy efficiency strategy.
At the conference, high-level government authorities will share their initiatives and plans towards achieving Qatar’s power and water sustainability objectives.
