KUWAIT: Shamal Az-Zour Al-Oula Company yesterday announced that successful conclusion of a site visit by the Ministry of Electricity and Water's (MEW) Power and Water Distillation Sector in preparation for the summer 2018 season.

Hosted on February 12, the site visit is part of an annual maintenance schedule carried out by the Ministry of Electricity and Water under the supervision of Assistant Undersecretary for the Water Plant Operation and Maintenance Sector Engineer Fouad Al-Oun, and the Director of Private Sector Projects Department (PSPD) Ayman Al-Hajji, who were received by Shamal Az-Zour CEO Andrew Paul Frain.

Oun also met with the company's Kuwaiti personnel, including engineers and technicians, to review their training and development progress as part of the company's program to train and empower Kuwaiti professionals to lead the plant's operations. The site visit concluded that Az-Zour North One Power and Water Plant is fully prepared for the increase in demand expected for the Summer season of 2018.

Shamal Az-Zour CEO Andrew Paul Frain said: "It was our pleasure to guide the delegation through our preparations for the high-demand Summer 2018 season. Since November 2016, the plant is fully operational and is already contributing to the national grid and supply the Ministry of Electricity and Water with the necessary energy."

Az-Zour North One Power and Water Plant is the Kuwait's first independently owned power and water facility. The plant has a production capacity of 10 percent of Kuwait's power requirements at peak production (1,539MW) and 20 percent of water generation (107 million gallons per day).

The plant began operations in November 2016 and is the first stage of the country's plan to significantly increase capacity over the coming years and part of a larger effort to meet an anticipated peak demand of 25 gigawatts (GW) by 2025.