Jordan has extended the bid submission date for photovoltaic (PV) solar proposals to 22 March for the third round of its renewable energy programme.

The original deadline for PV submissions had been 1 March, but the clients, the Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources (MEMR) and the National Electric Power Company (Nepco), have extended the deadline to allow bidders more time to work on proposals.

The client had previously set a deadline of 1 November for wind proposals under the third round of the programme.

MEED reported in May last year that Jordan’s Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources (MEMR) had prequalified groups for the third round of its renewable energy programme.

The client has prequalified 30 groups to participate in the solar PV programme and 14 groups to participate in the wind power tender.

Under the third round, MEMR is planning for the development of 200MW of photovoltaic (PV) solar at a designated site in the Ma’an area, with 100MW of wind power projects to be developed in the southern part of Jordan at a site to be chosen by the developer.

The prequalified developers for the PV solar tender are:

For the wind projects the following groups have been prequalified:

Successful applicants in the third round will enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with MEMR, which will enable them to proceed with measurement campaigns, feasibility studies, technical integration plans for connection into the national grid as well as other relevant preparatory work.

The invited participants will then submit a direct proposal within the required timeframe to MEMR, following which the client will select the best projects to proceed with. Submitted proposals will be ranked according to price, and the bids with the lowest tariffs will be selected as preferred bidders.

Selected developer consortiums will form project companies to operate as independent power producers (IPP) under a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Jordanian government offtaker for a period of 20-25 years.

MEMR had invited developers to submit expressions of interest (EOI) for the third round in January 2017, and, in a first for the region’s renewable energy sector, the EOI documents stated that they would be accepting proposals with battery storage.

However, MEMR decided to proceed with a separate electrical storage tender. MEED reported in January that MEMR had prequalified 23 groups to participate in the tender to develop an electrical storage project for renewable energy in the Ma’an Development area of Jordan.

The work will involve the design, financing, construction, commissioning and ownership and maintenance (BOM) of the electrical storage facility.

The electrical storage project will have a power capacity of at least 30MW, with an energy capacity of 60MWh, which will primarily be used for controlling photovoltaic (PV) solar and wind energy. The project will the first phase of electrical storage in Jordan.