- The small Kingdom of Eswatini (previously called Swaziland) has called for interested parties to register their willingness to participate new generation solar pv and biomass generation projects in that country.
- According to their Short-term Generation Expansion Plan (SGEP), 40 MW of solar PV technology will need to be procured by 2020 followed by circa 40 MW of biomass in 2021.
In July 2018, the eSwatini Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy (MNRE), announced a new energy policy which sets out that the procurement of new generation capacity by Independent Power Producers (“IPPs”) will be conducted through competitive tendering.
In support of the new policy, the MNRE launched its Integrated Resource Masterplan (the “MasterPlan”) for the energy sector as well as the Short-term Generation Expansion Plan (“SGEP”) which provideS a roadmap of the new generation capacity to be developed in the country.
According to the SGEP, circa 40 MW of solar PV technology will need to be procured by 2020 followed by circa 40 MW of biomass in 2021. This new generation capacity will be procured through competitive tendering processes to be conducted by the Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (“ESERA”), in co-operation with the MNRE in accordance with the Electricity Act of 2007.
The potential areas for local participation include funding on debt and equity as well as the engineering, procurement and construction (“EPC”) and operations and maintenance (“O&M”) arrangements. The tender documents will specify the minimum levels that will need to be allocated to Eswatini registered companies/citizens on each of the local participation categories.
In order to facilitate the partnership between the developers and local companies/citizens, ESERA has identified the need to create a database of parties who may be interested in participating in the development of the new generation capacity in Eswatini.
As a result, ESERA is launching this registration process to invite parties who may interested in participating in the development of new generation to assist ESERA by submitting the relevant information as described in Section 2 (the “Registration”).
All parties should note that the Registration process is not intended to be, and should not be considered to be, the start of a procurement process and does not in any way constitute any form of shortlisting, pre-qualification or any other form of selection for purposes of procurement for new generation capacity.
All parties who are interested in potentially becoming developers, investors, financiers, EPC contractors, O&M contractors, etc. in the development of the new generation projects in Eswatini are encouraged to express their interest by completing the Registration Form (Appendix A). The Registration Form shall be completed in the prescribed format and submitted electronically to:
- Mr Sikhumbuzo Nkambule
- Manager Consumer and Stakeholder Management
- Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority
- Email: nkambules@sera.org.sz
ESERA requests that the Registration Form is submitted no later than 5:00pm (CAT), 26 April 2019. The submissions shall be marked with the subject line: “Registration of Interest for Participating in the Development of New Generation Capacity – [Name of party]”.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
