Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) has announced that consortiums of leading utility developers including Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), French group EDF and TotalEnergies have been shortlisted for the fifth round of National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP) solar projects.
 
The projects, which will attract investments worth over SAR8 billion ($2.12 billion), will be implemented on a build, own and operate (BOO) model by a project company, and will be 100% owned by the successful bidder. 
 
SPPC is responsible for the predevelopment, tendering, and subsequent offtake Energy projects under Ministry of Energy Supervision. To date, SPPC has awarded over 19 GW of renewable energy capacity under NREP. 
 
Furthermore, each project company will enter into a 25-year power purchase agreement with SPPC. 
 
The projects are 2000 MWac Al Sadawi IPP in the Eastern Province; 1000 MWac Al Masa’a IPP in Hail; 400 MWac Al Henakiyah 2 IPP in Madinah and the 300 MWac Rabigh 2 IPP in Makkah Province. 
 
For the 2000 MWac Al Sadawi IPP, a consortium of Masdar, Korea Electric Power Corporation, GD Power Development Company (with a price of 4.84736 Halala/kWh (1.29263/USDc/kWh) and that of SPIC Huanghe Hydropower Development and EDF Renouvelables (with 4.92019 Halala/kWh (1.31205 USDc/kWh) have been shortlisted.
 
For the 1000 MWac Al Masa’a IPP, a consortium of SPIC Huanghe Hydropower Development Company and EDF Renouvelables has made it to the SPPC list with a price of 5.13228 Halala/kWh (1.36861 USDc/kWh) along with consortium of Al Jomaih Energy and Water Company, TotalEnergies Renewables (5.25462 Halala/kWh (1.40123 USDc/kWh).
 
For the 400 MWac Al Henakiyah 2 IPP, a consortium of Masdar, Korea Electric Power Corporation and Nesma Company (with the price of 5.90820 Halala/kWh (1.57552 USDc/kWh) as well as that of Spic Huanghe Hydropower Development and EDF Renouvelables (with a 5.68618 Halala/kWh (1.51631 USDc/kWh) have been shortlisted.
 
For the 300 MWac Rabigh 2 IPP, a consortium of Saudi-based Al Jomaih Energy and Water Company and global utility major TotalEnergies Renewables have made it to the SPPC list with a price of 6.68019 Halala/kWh (1.78138 USDc/kWh) along with consortium of Masdar-Kepco-Nesma with a submitted the price of 7.11891 Halala/kWh (1.89838 USDc/kWh).
 
SPPC had issued the request for qualification (RFQ) of NREP’s Round 5 last year in November. On the 5th of December 2023, SPPC received statements of qualification (SOQ) from 31 applicants, of which 23 companies have been qualified for lead roles. 
 
In August this year, six bids were received for each project. Bids were evaluated to ensure compliance with the RFP’s technical and commercial requirements, said the Saudi project company in its statement.
 
These projects are part of NREP, which aims to achieve the optimal energy mix, displacing liquid fuels in the Kingdom’s power sector and supply 50% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030.-TradeArabia News Service