Water. Desalination + reuse
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PROJECTS | 20 | Desalination & Water Reuse | February-March 2015 PROJECTPROGRESS COnTRaCTOR STREngTh dRivES invESTmEnT gRadE RaTing fOR CaRlSbad bOndS Credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings, has assigned an investment-grade rating of 'BBB-' on bonds issued for the under-construction Carlsbad desalination plant and associated networks in California. The rating apply to US$ 559.9 million of series 2012 plant bonds and US$ 221.5 million of series 2012 pipeline bonds. The outlook is stable said Fitch. According to Fitch, the rating reflects: "timely construction progress of the project with provisional acceptance expected to be achieved several months ahead of guaranteed completion date in 2015." Fitch listed strong drivers for the rating including in the results of recent plant tests, a guaranteed water purchase agreement, and the sound track record of the contractors for construction – Kiewit Shea Desalination, and operations and maintenance – IDE. The agency said a recent testing programme showed that the plant could meet the minimum performance criteria on quality and pretreatment run times during periods of severe algal bloom. The 33-year water purchase agreement with the AA-rated San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) has provided revenue stability under a take-if-delivered contract said Fitch. SDCWA has agreed to purchase a minimum of 5.9 million m³ a year, subject to availability. The operating and maintenance agreement and the water purchase agreement provided a "very robust recovery framework for most eventualities including inflation, normal operations and major maintenance, capital requirements (including regulatory mandates), and high levels of electricity pricing," said Fitch. The "moderately high leverage" was, according to Fitch, "manageable if the project is operating at targeted performance levels". The ratio of net debt to cashflow is 10 for the plant bonds and 14 for the pipeline bonds. The project is designed to be a 270 Ml/d reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant with 15 km of 135 cm water conveyance pipeline. The plant will be located next to the Encina Power Station in Carlsbad, California. Seawater for the plant will be drawn from the cooling water discharge of the power station, and wastewater will be returned into the ocean using the power station's existing discharge canal. Commercial operations are currently expected to start about 15 months ahead of schedule. india TO gET PROTOTyPE lOw-TEmPERaTuRE dESalinaTiOn PlanT A new low-temperature thermal desalination (LTTD) plant is being set up at a lignite-fired power station in southern India. Construction of a 2 Ml/d, prototype LTTD seawater plant is underway at state-run miner, Neyveli Lignite's 1,000 MW power station at Tuticorin. The Ministry of Earth Sciences, through the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), has been working on LTTD technology which evaporates surface seawater at low pressure whereupon the vapour is condensed using the colder deep-sea water. Three other LTTD plants have been commissioned in the country at Kavaratti, Minicoy, and Agatti islands of Lakshadweep. The Lakshadweep administration has requested NIOT assistance in setting up similar plants in the remaining six islands. mixEd nEwS fOR dESalinaTiOn in namibia'S uRanium minES Namibian uranium mines have received mixed news on the prospect of an end to their struggle to secure cheaper and secure water supplies through new desalination facilities. Months after unveiling plans to construct a desalination plant at its Rössing uranium mine in Namibia, mining giant, Rio Tinto, has yet to begin the work according to a report by The Economist. A Rio Tinto spokesman for the mining giant was reported to have told reporters: "We have not started any construction yet. The project is still in a very early stage." Meanwhile the Namibian state water company, Namwater, has confirmed earlier reports of its plan to purchase a 20 million m³-a-year facility owned by French engineering firm, Areva, and to increase the plant's capacity. The Areva plant is supplying about 10 million m³ of water a year to four uranium mines – including Rio Tinto's Rössing mine – in the economically important but semi-arid Erongo region. Namwater anticipated being able to increase the Areva plant's output to about 45 million m³. The plant was originally built to supply Areva's currently mothballed uranium plant at Trekkopje. Rio Tinto said it planned to build its own desalination plant north of Swakopmund because the price paid for water from the Areva desalination plant, was too high. Consultants to Rössing Uranium, SLR Consulting and Aurecon, have said the potential cost savings from a new plant were about US$ 72 million over the planned ten years Rössing would use a new desalination plant. Rössing said it needed to halve its current US$ 4 /m 3 cost of water to remain viable and a new plant could achieve that reduction. The planned new plant would meet Rössing Uranium's entire water demand of 3 million m 3 . Rössing Uranium has said it was also motivated to build its own plant by Namwater's failure to have constructed a desalination plant for mining purposes by October 2014. The Namibian government subsequently opted to buy the Areva desalination plant rather than construct its own facility. According to reports, managing director of Areva's Namibian unit, Hilifa Mbako, has made assurances that "negotiations with the government, which has offered to buy the plant, are under way and would probably be wrapped up in 2015." ghana COmPlETES COnSTRuCTiOn Of SEawaTER dESalinaTiOn PlanT Ghana has completed construction of its 65 Ml/d Teshie-Nungua seawater desalination water project. Ghana's deputy minister of communications, Felix Kwakye- Ofosu said the project would end perennial water problems for the people of Teshie-Nungua and surrounding areas close to the Ghanaian capital, Accra. The people in the region have been experiencing acute water shortages for more than two decades. The situation has concerned many who live in the area with many accusing the government of neglect. Parliament had earlier approved a US$ 110 million loan facility for a water purchase