Saudi Arabia invites bids for round II of renewable energy program

Saudi Arabia’s Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) has invited requests for proposals (RFPs) for round II of the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP), Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Thursday.

The step includes bidding for two ‘Category A’ projects after issuing RFPs for four ‘Category B’ solar projects issued on July 18. 

Round II projects are set to see a total solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity of 1.47 gigawatts (GW).

The total of 60 qualified companies, of which 28 are Saudi firms, will proceed to the RFP stage as either managing or technical members, or under a newly-created category of a ‘local managing member’ which was introduced to improve local capabilities and encourage them to take part in international consortiums upon bidding.

Round II projects have been divided into ‘Category A’ for smaller projects (requires consortium members to partner with at least one local managing member) and ‘Category B’ for larger projects. 

Projects in round II require a minimum of 17 percent local content, according to regulations of the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority, which aims to increase the value-added contribution of products and services to the Kingdom’s economy.
 

The six projects being tendered within Round II represent the first half of REPDO’s project development pipeline for 2019, while the third round will be tendered by the Q4 2019. 

The deadline for round II ‘Category B’ proposals is set on Nov. 18, 2019, while the deadline for ‘Category A’ projects is Dec. 3, 2019. Results will be live-streamed on REPDO’s web portal. 

All REPDO’s projects will be totally implemented according to the independent power producer (IPP) system, backed by 20 to 25-year renewable energy purchase agreements.  

According to data compiled by Argaam, the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources previously announced launching round II of the Kingdom’s National Renewable Energy Program.