BY BUSINESS EDITOR
MBABANE – A Brazilian company (Laurene Desclaux) has been listed as the best evaluated tenderer to be awarded for the Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (ESERA) tender.
ESERA was looking for an international consultant for a full Derisking Renewable Energy Investment (“DREI”) analysis of the Africa Minigrids Program (“AMP”) national child project in Eswatini.
There were only two international companies who showed interest for the tender, these were Laurene Desclaux from Brazil and Deenapanray Prakash Sanju from Madagascar.
The best evaluated company obtained a financial score of 100 per cent while the competitor received 52 per cent when evaluated by ESERA. This was published by the Eswatini Public Procurement Regulatory Agency (ESPPRA) on their website.
The Brazilian Company is expected to begin executing the tender after 10 working days, should they not be contented.
Worth noting, (ESERA) has confirmed that the construction of projects in line with the 75MW Solar PV generating capacities will begin at the end of 2024.
This follows announcement last month by ESERA of its intention to award contracts to preferred bidders for 75MW Solar PV generation capacities in line with Section 26 of the Electricity Act of 2007. The preferred bidders or companies include Africa Clean Energy Development, which is a South African (SA) company, Globeleq Africa Holdings Limited from the United Kingdom (UK) and Innovent SAS from France.
This is part of ESERA procurement processes of new generating capacity from independent producers. Asked on the current status of the said project, ESERA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sikhumbuzo Tsabedze alluded to the fact that project negotiations were ongoing to finalise agreements on project documents being power purchase agreement, grid connection agreement and implementation agreement.
Further quizzed about the values of the proposed contracts intended to be awarded to the said companies when undertaking the project, Tsabedze did not give a definite response.
“Presently, the value is uncertain as these are IPP projects, which will be fully capitalised and funded by the private sector,” he explained.
The CEO also pointed out that with all things constant, construction of projects was expected to begin at the end of 2024, adding that, ‘plants are expected to come on line approximately by the end of 2025.’
It was previously reported that Eswatini was targeting at least 50 per cent of renewable energy in the country’s electricity mix, as revealed by outgoing Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg on BNN Newsroom seven months ago
