62 companies bid in renewables auction in El Salvador

El Salvador power utility, DELSUR, has announced that 62 companies are interested in taking part in the tender process to procure 170 megawatts (MW) from renewable energy sources. These companies come from countries such as the United States, Spain, Germany, France, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama, among others.  

The tender is for 170 MW of power generated exclusively from non-conventional renewable resources (solar and wind) and includes a contract for a period of 20 years starting from 2019. The deadline for receipt of bids is 20 October 2016.

The tender process is being managed by DELSUR on behalf of other distribution companies in the country, and is being developed in close collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Energy Council (CNE), the promotion organization Export Agency and Investments of El Salvador (PROESA), the General Superintendency of Electricity and Telecommunications (SIGET), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Environment and the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency, who together have organized many promotional activities aimed at disseminating the process of potential competition between the companies concerned and disclose the conditions on which the process will be developed. 

These types of initiatives comply with the National Energy Policy, which includes: diversifying the energy matrix of El Salvador, as well as opening new windows for investment in El Salvador. It is anticipated that this new tender process will generate an estimated investment of US$340 million to be developed in the next two years. 

Previously in 2014, DELSUR and state authorities launched a similar tender process to procure 60 MW  form solar energy and 40 MW from wind energy. Due to wind power companies bid higher than expected, a total of 4 solar plants totaling 94 MW were awarded under that renewable energy auction.