Abu Dhabi’s state utility EWEC has taken bids from 27 pre-qualified consortia for the Gulf’s largest stand-alone battery, a 400 MW, two-hour system. This article sets out the tender’s terms, the storage projects that led here, the economics behind the likely clearing price, and what the award will signal for battery storage across the Gulf.
EWEC is procuring a 400 MW, two-hour battery through a competitive tender that drew 27 pre-qualified consortia, the Gulf’s largest stand-alone battery project to date. The utility runs the process as sole procurer under Abu Dhabi’s independent power producer framework, buying capacity through a long-term energy storage agreement rather than owning the asset. Energy Storage News reported the request for proposals, and the timeline runs from expressions of interest closed in March 2024 to an award expected in the first half of 2026. Table 1 sets out the tender’s terms as reported.
Table 1: The 400 MW tender at a glance: capacity, timeline, commercial model and siting, with the outlet reporting each item. Interactive on the live page: rows highlight on hover.
Sources: Emirates News Agency, Economy Middle East, The Gulf Observer.
Because the generation mix has already shifted: on some days renewable and clean sources meet more than 80 per cent of total power demand, a milestone the Abu Dhabi Media Office announced, and solar output of that scale needs somewhere to go when the sun sets. The battery moves midday solar into the evening peak and replaces spinning reserve, which is why the timing follows the solar build-out rather than preceding it.
Abu Dhabi’s storage story did not start here. The emirate pioneered grid-scale sodium sulfur batteries in 2019 with a 108 MW virtual battery plant across ten sites, Dubai added the 250 MW Hatta pumped-hydro scheme, and the Masdar-EWEC solar-plus-storage project will take the pipeline past 19 GWh by 2027. Table 2 tracks the milestones.
Table 2: UAE storage milestones from the 2019 sodium sulfur fleet to the 2027 solar-plus-storage project. Interactive on the live page: rows highlight on hover.
Sources: Energy Storage Consultants, Power Technology, Masdar, PV Magazine.
Three coastal tail-winds reached the Gulf at once. Battery pack prices hit US $115 per kWh in 2024, a 20 per cent fall on the year and the largest yearly drop since 2017, according to BloombergNEF's survey. BNEF expects 57 GW and 136 GWh of new stationary storage worldwide in 2024, up 40 per cent on the year (BloombergNEF). And turnkey two-hour systems in China fell 43 per cent year on year to US $115 per kWh in February 2024, pricing that is filtering into Gulf EPC bids (RenewablesNow).
Each of the grid’s current pain-points map to a battery service, from shifting midday solar spill into the evening peak to covering the loss of a 1 GW Barakah nuclear unit without an extra spinning plant. EWEC’s solar targets, 10 GW of PV by 2030 with land already secured for 4.6 GW of solar and wind (PV Magazine), make the storage the enabling half of the plan. Table 3 pairs each pain-point with the value the battery adds.
Table 3: What the battery does for the grid: each pain-point paired with the storage service that answers it. Interactive on the live page: rows highlight on hover.
Source: PV Magazine.
MCC modelled three scenarios around the turnkey EPC price, the real weighted average cost of capital and the 35-year capacity fee. The base case lands the levelised cost of storage at AED 185 per MWh, about US $50; the bull case at AED 160; and even the bear case, at AED 225, undercuts gas peakers above US $95 per MWh once heat rates are adjusted. Table 4 sets out the assumptions and results.
Table 4: MCC’s clearing price scenarios: EPC cost, real WACC and capacity fee assumptions with the levelised cost of storage each produces. Interactive on the live page: rows highlight on hover.
Source: MCC Economics analysis.
The 400 MW tender sits between Saudi Arabia’s far larger but undisclosed SPPC programme and Australia’s benchmark Victorian Big Battery. None of the comparators has disclosed a clearing fee, which is exactly why Abu Dhabi’s award, when published, could become the Gulf’s first open price benchmark. Table 5 compares the three.
Table 5: The tender against its nearest comparators in Saudi Arabia and Australia, by size and disclosed pricing. Interactive on the live page: rows highlight on hover.
Source: MCC Economics.
Abu Dhabi pioneered grid-scale sodium sulfur batteries in 2019; six years later it is shopping for a lithium-ion fleet bigger than Hornsdale and Gateway combined. If bids clear near US $50 per MWh, the Gulf will own the new global benchmark for flexible, low-cost solar integration
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