UAE's Taqa, Dubal Holding to acquire EGA's power grid

UAE state-backed entities Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, or Taqa, and Dubal Holding plan to acquire 50% stakes each in Emirates Global Aluminium's total power generation assets, the companies said in a statement March. 9.

The acquisition will decarbonize the aluminum producer's operations through deployment of solar power capacity.

The clean power will be supplied to the grid through a power purchase agreement signed with the Emirates Water and Electricity Company.

Power will be supplied from combined cycle generation plants at Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, which have a total capacity of 6,474 MW.

The acquisition of EGA's power generation assets will expand Taqa's overall domestic capacity to 23 GW, in line with the company's plans to raise local assets to 30 GW by 2030.

The aluminum producer will tap into EWEC's supply of solar power "once it is developed", the company said in a statement.

EGA also receives a significant baseload of clean power from the UAE's Barakah nuclear power plant.

Taqa will connect the power assets to the grid through the Abu Dhabi Transmission and Despatch Company and will also look to upgrade the network to include new substations to strengthen connectivity.

Ewec is developing a 2 GW solar power plant with Taqa, Abu Dhabi's Masdar, France's EDF and Chinese company JinkoPower in the Abu Dhabi desert.