Abengoa, announced that it has started exporting drinking water from the Jubail 3A desalination plant, reaching 25 % of its total capacity (600,000 m3/day) to the Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC).
Abengoa, in consortium with SEPCOIII, is responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the project for the leading company in the development, investment, ownership and operation of power generation and desalinated water production plants, ACWA Power.
The Jubail 3A desalination plant is located south of the city of Jubail, in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, in the northeast of the country.
This milestone achieved by Abengoa and their EPC consortium partners is a key milestone in the plant’s operational tests, which are part of the plant’s commissioning phase.
Abengoa has thus been able to produce drinking water at the Jubail 3A desalination plant in compliance with the quality parameters specified in the contract.
Subsequently, this capacity is expected to be increased in stages, from 25 to 50 % of its total capacity, and from 50 to 75 %, until finally reaching 100 %. In this way, the required contractual tests will be continued, with the objective of bringing the plant into commercial operation and producing drinking water to meet the demand of a population equivalent of 3,000,000 inhabitants.
Jubail 3A will be the first and largest in the world to be partially powered by renewable energy generated by a solar photovoltaic plant (45.5 MWp) as part of Saudi 2030 vision to reduce Carbon Emission globally. Thus, the plant will produce drinking water in a sustainable and efficient way, being the first experience of Independent Water Project (IWP) in Saudi Arabia on a commercial scale.
The project includes seawater collection (14 km of pipes under sea), pumping station, pre-treatment, reverse osmosis system with energy recovery, post-treatment, product pumping station with 3,5 km of interface pipeline till delivery point, product water storage tank for one day of production, effluent treatment, outfall discharge and an integrated photovoltaic solar field, as well as the associated electrical installations, which include the construction of a 380/33 kV electrical substation and 11,5 km of OHTL.
