Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy has published the names of the shortlisted bidders for the round two of the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP).

Al Blagha Holding for Investments Company and First Solar International Middle East (FZ-LLC) have been shortlisted for projects under round two category A. This round comprised 70 MW capacity, including Madinah (50 MW) and Rafha (20 MW) projects.

The Request for Proposals (RfP) for Category A projects was released in August 2019. A total of two bids were submitted in February 2020 for each of the two projects.

For the Madinah project, Al Blagha Holding has been shortlisted at SR 0.07 ($0.02)/kWh and First Solar International Middle East for SR 0.11 ($0.03)/kWh.

Similarly, for the Rafha 20 MW project, Al Blagha Holding has been shortlisted for SR0.13 (~$0.03)/ kWh and First Solar for SR0.19 (~$0.05)/kWh.

Round two Category B of the NREP consisted of four solar independent producers bidding for 1,400 MW, namely, Al-Faisaliah PV IPP (600 MW), Jeddah PV IPP (300 MW), Rabigh PV IPP, (300 MW) and Qurrayat PV IPP (200 MW).

For Jeddah 300 MW project, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC-MASDAR has been shortlisted for the levelized cost of SR 0.06 (~$0.02)/ kWh, International Company for Water and Power Projects (ACWA Power) for SR0.06 (~$0.02)/ kWh.

Similarly, for the Rabigh 300 MW project, Marubeni Corporation and ACWA Power have been selected. For Qurrayat 200 MW PV project, ACWA, and Total Solar INTL have been shortlisted.

The Request for Proposals for the projects in this category was released in July 2019. A total of four bids were submitted in January 2020 for four projects.

For the Al-Faisaliah PV IPP, bids received from the lowest two bidders were extremely close, and the difference in the levelized cost of energy (LCOEs) was within the statistical margin of error. So, the Ministry of Energy decided to shortlist the two consortia led by MASDAR and ACWA and proceeded with the best and final offer. The results for the Al-Faisaliah project will be announced in April 2020 after the completion of the best and final offer.

Successful bidders will enter into a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) as the off-taker.

Recently, it was reported that to curb the spread of deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19), the Emirates Water & Electricity Company (EWEC), Abu Dhabi’s state-owned water and electric utility, postponed the planned public opening of the commercial tariffs for the 1.5 GW Al-Dhafra solar project.

In March 2020, Mercom reported that the Saudi Arabia Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) announced the list of companies that were pre-qualified to bid in round three for a combined solar capacity of 1.2 GW. The project falls under the Kingdom’s National Renewable Energy Program and has been divided into two categories – Category A and Category B.

 

Image credit: Jllm06 / CC BY-SA