Kahramaa 'can meet power, water needs for 5 years'

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) currently has the capacity to meet all the country's electricity and water needs over the next five years, the corporation's President Issa bin Hilal al-Kuwari has stressed. In a statement issued on Saturday, al-Kuwari said that Kahramaa all the necessary reserves to operate all the projects in the country whenever required, and that it has many plans to enhance its role to fulfil its mission of providing sufficient quantities of electricity and water to meet the country's future needs, in accordance with internationally recognised standards.He explained that all electricity and water projects in the country are proceeding as planned without delay, and that additional projects in the fields of electricity, water and solar energy will be announced soon.During the second quarter of this year, Kahramaa succeeded in meeting the growing demand for electricity and water services with great efficiency thanks to the efforts and co-ordination between all the authorities concerned in the country, the statement added. The maximum load reached by the electricity network during this period was 7,600 MW, while the maximum demand for water was 375 million gallons.Al-Kuwari said that the levels of electricity and water production in the country are constantly increasing to keep pace with the country's steady growth in all fields. The second quarter of 2017 witnessed the operation of the first phase of the Umm Al-Hall Electricity and Water Production Project, which started in early June, noting that the current phase of the plant feeds the network with a production of 60 million gallons of water and 1,612 MW of electricity, and final operation of this phase of the project will be completed this month.The Kahramaa president added that these quantities of production have increased the electricity output reserve to more than 23% and the water production reserve by about 15%, while the water storage capacity has increased to 1,472 million gallons, an increase of 10%.He said that these achievements come in accordance with Qatar National Vision 2030 and the ambitious goals of the second national development strategy set by the country's leadership. The strategy aims to achieve sustainable development, progress, growth and well-being of the citizens of the country and all the residents, in a way that encourages and creates an attractive investment environment for capital from all over the world according to plans and programmes set by the State.