Notice of qualification issued for third round of Saudi renewables programme
Saudi Arabia’s Renewable Energy Project Development Office (Repdo) has issued the notice of prequalification for the planned 1.2GW third round of the kingdom’s National Renewable Energy Project Development Office (Repdo).
Developers had submitted prequalification documents in early February. According to sources close to the project, the notice indicates that the request for proposals (RFP) will be issued in March.
Two of the PV independent power producer (IPP) projects will be tendered as ‘Category A’ projects, with two to be designated as ‘Category B’ schemes.
The Category A projects are:
• Wadi ad-Dawasir, 120MW
• Layla, 80MW
The Category B projects are:
• Ar-Rass, 700MW
• Saad, 300MW
As with the second round of the NREP, companies can apply to be prequalified as either ‘Managing Member’; and/or ‘Technical Member’; and/or ‘Local Managing Member.’
According to the request for qualification (RFQ) document, companies that were prequalified as either of these three participants in the second round of the NREP will automatically be prequalified for the third round and will not need to resubmit prequalification documents.
All three categories of prequalified companies will be eligible to bid for the smaller Category A projects, with participation in the tender for Category B projects restricted to Managing Members and Technical Members.
Parties which fail to prequalify in either of the above three categories will be able to join consortiums with prequalified companies following the conclusion of the prequalification round.
Each project will be developed under a build-own-operate (BOO) model, with the successful bidder holding 100 per cent equity in the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up to developer and operate the IPP.
SPVs will sign a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the kingdom’s offtaker. Land for the projects will be secured by Repdo and provided to the project company under sub-lease agreements.
In January, Repdo received proposals for the Category B projects under second round of the NREP. In early February the client received proposals for the two small Category A projects, with a combined total capacity of 70MW, under the second round.
Repdo’s advisers for the second and third rounds are Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) as lead and financial adviser, Germany’s Fichtner as technical adviser and the UK’s DLA Piper as legal adviser.
Saudi Arabia has set an ambitious target to install 58.7GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, with Repdo to oversee the development of 30 per cent of this though a competitive IPP tendering programme.
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