The State of Qatar has awarded KEMA and Royal Haskoning a Euro 1 million contract to develop a 30-year master plan for electricity and water. The Dutch consortium will implement the project starting in December 2006 through the first of January 2008. The contract award represents a key contribution to KEMA’s business development objectives in the Gulf Region. 

Due to the development of the economy and the high population growth in Qatar, the demand for water and electricity is increasing rapidly. Over the past several years the industrial and commercial demand for electricity and water has shown a growth of 20% per annum while the domestic demand has increased by 5% per annum.

Comprehensive forecast
During the implementation of the master plan study, KEMA and Royal Haskoning will develop a 30-year forecast of the demand for power and water, determine the investment needed for production and distribution, study the technologies for power production and for the desalination of seawater, and identify and investigate locations for the production facilities. Water and electricity production facilities are generally combined to achieve efficiency between the energy requirements for power generation and desalination of seawater.

Informed investment decisions
The project also includes developing custom analytical tools to address demand forecasting and production expansion. The tools will be developed to enable the Qatar Electricity and Water Utility (Kahramaa) to make informed investment decisions. The project contributes towards achieving the business development targets in the Gulf Region for KEMA in the Power Sector and for Royal Haskoning in the desalination sector.