13 COMPANIES VYING FOR SOLAR TENDER

MBABANE – A total of 13 companies are in the run for the production of 40 megawatts solar power for the country.  The Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (ESERA) has issued a list of shortlisted companies that stand to be part of the successful lot which could participate in the multimillion tender being undertaken through competitive bidding.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vusi Mkhumane announced that a total of 26 companies had expressed interest for the production of 40 megawatts (MW) solar PV plants ranging from 5 – 15 MW of installed DC capacity per plant.
Mkhumane disclosed that the shortlisted applicants would be issued with invitations to participate in the Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

Non-refundable

“Upon receiving the invitations, the qualified applicants will be required to pay a non-refundable fee of E50 000 in order to receive the RFP documentation. ESERA will also issue the qualified applicants a revised timetable for the remainder of the procurement process including date for the launch of the RFP process,” Mkhumane announced.
ESERA in cooperation with Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, Minister Peter Bhembe, earlier announced that it intended to procure new generation capacity for Eswatini.

The CEO said, as a country, this would be the beginning of a journey that they believed would result in successfully achieving one of the nation’s strategic goals, which was the increase in investment in the energy sector and country in general.
Mkhumane mentioned that they had seen impressive involvement of local companies in the build-up activities, where they had invited companies with interest to participate in the exercise to register.
A fee of E10 000 which was for the RFQ document, ought to have been made to the ESERA bank account prior to the submissions which were made on August 23, 2019. 

Generate

About 100 local and foreign companies showed keen interest to join the fray in the quest to generate 80 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
These entities responded to the completed exercise for registration of companies with interest competitive power procurement exercise by ESERA. Eswatini also intends to procure another 40 MW biomass plant.
“This power procurement exercise seeks to achieve an additional 80 MW capacity to locally generated power.

‘‘This effort will result to a huge reduction in electricity imports for the country, which will result in multiple positive economic outflows, including job creation and possibly, increase in foreign direct investment,” clarified ESERA Manager of Consumer and Stakeholder Management Sikhumbuzo Nkambule.
Nkambule had mentioned that the invitation for registration was aimed at collecting data that would be used for match-making purposes by prospective bidders.

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