Saudi Arabia’s Renewable Energy Project Development Office (Repdo) has received proposals from four bidders for its planned 400MW Dumat al-Jandal wind power project, the second project under the kingdom’s National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP).

Repdo, the renewable energy body set up by the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, received the bids by the 17 April deadline. The client had been due to hold a public bid opening to be streamed live over the internet, but it was postponed. The bids from the four bidders will remain sealed until the public opening. The date for the rescheduled public opening will be announced shortly, according to Repdo.

The four groups which submitted proposals are:

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

Repdo prequalified 25 firms to participate in the tender for the wind project, which will be developed under the independent power producer (IPP) model.

This is the second time Repdo has prequalified developers for a 400MW wind project. The renewables office had prequalified 24 companies to participate in a 400MW wind project in April 2017, but, after deciding to change the location of the site from Midyan to Dumat al-Jandal, the client reopened the prequalification process.

MEED reported in June last year that Repdo was planning to change the site due to the government considering the implementation of a large-scale tourism development at Midyan.

In February this year, Repdo awarded the contract for the first project under the NREP, the 300MW photovoltaic (PV) Sakaka solar project. The contract was awarded 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 that Repdo 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 for about a quarter of the 4GW second round projects to be awarded before the end of 2018.