Syria’s Public Establishment of Electricity for Generation & Transmission (PEEGT) has shortlisted three consultants to advise on the country’s first wind farm project.

According to a source at PEEGT a total of six bids were submitted, of which Germany’s Fichtner, the UK’s IPA Energy and Water Economics and US-headquartered Booz & Company have been shortlisted.

The three bids are now being evaluated by a technical committee and a final selection is expected to be made by the end of May.

The winning consultant will supervise the bidding process and train PEEGT’s staff to handle the project.

The exact size of the wind farm will be determined by PEEGT in collaboration with its selected adviser, but it will fall in the 50-100MW range.

Two sites have been earmarked as possible locations for the wind farm. The Al-Sukhna site is 70 kilometres east of Palmyra while the Al-Hijana site is 50km south of Damascus.

PEEGT has already launched the search for a developer to build the project and it has received a total of 15 responses to a request for qualification (RFQ). According to PEEGT, a request for proposals (RFP) to build the project will be issued soon after the adviser is in place.

The winning bidder will develop the wind farm on a build-own-operate or build-operate-transfer basis. The project company will design, finance, build, own and operate the wind farm for 20-25 years.