Bidders competing for the planned 400MW Dumat al-Jandal wind power project, the second project under Saudi Arabia’s National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP), are still waiting for news on when bids will be opened.

The Renewable Energy Project Development Office (Repdo) received proposals from four bidders on 17 April. The client had been due to hold a public bid opening to be streamed live over the internet, but it was postponed.

The four bids will remain sealed until the public opening. Bidders are still waiting for an announcement from Repdo on when this will take place.

The four groups which submitted proposals are:

• Acwa Power (local)
• EDF Energies Nouvelles (France)
• Enel Green Power (Italy)
• Engie (France)

Repdo had prequalified 25 firms to participate in the tender for the wind project.

In February this year, Repdo awarded the contract for the first project under the NREP, the 300MW photovoltaic (PV) Sakaka solar project, to a consortium led by the local Acwa Power.

The first two projects are part of a 9.5GW pipeline of clean energy projects the kingdom is planning to develop by 2023. In January, Turki al-Shehri, head of Repdo, announced it was aiming to tender 4GW of renewable energy projects before the end of 2018.

The 4GW will be split into 3.2GW of PV solar and 800MW of wind. According to the Repdo head, Riyadh is planning to award about a quarter of the 4GW second-round projects before the end of 2018.