Saudi Arabia announces details for initial 1.4 GW tender

The Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources (MEIM) has announced details of the bidding process and the timeline for 12 renewable energy projects to be tendered in 2019.

These projects will have a total capacity of more than three gigawatts (GW). Requests for proposals (RFPs) for the first four projects will be launched in July, another two will be launched in August and the remaining six will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2019. The projects, which are part of the Kingdom’s round two of the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP), are divided into small ‘Category A’ projects with the capacity to produce 100 megawatts (MW) or less, and larger ‘Category B’ projects with a capacity above 100 megawatts (MW). The smaller-scale projects are designed to create greater opportunities for local companies to participate in NREP.

In January, REPDO invited expressions of interest (EOIs) for the first six solar photovoltaic (PV) projects to be tendered in round two of the NREP, with generation capacity ranging from 20 to 600 MW. The RFQ window closed on 18th of April, with 60 companies securing the initial qualification, including 28 Saudi companies. This is compared to a total of 42 companies which qualified for round one NREP projects in 2017.

On July 18th, REPDO will invite companies to submit proposals for the first four Category B
projects:
1. Al-Faisaliah Project (600MW)
2. Jeddah Project (300MW)
3. Rabigh Project (300MW)
4. Al-Qurayyat Project (200MW)

On August 1st, RFPs will be launched for the following Category A projects:
1. Medina Project (50MW)
2. Rafha Project (20MW)

The Ministry expects these projects to attract approximately SAR5.2 billion (US$1.4 billion) of private sector investment. All Round Two projects will require a minimum percentage of local content that will be calculated according to the mechanism defined by the Local Content & Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA), which aims to increase the value added contribution of products and services to the national economy.