Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has called off the first solar independent power projects (IPPs) that it intended to set up in Rafha and Al Jouf Province, in line with plans to merge them with the National Renewable Energy Programme (NREP).

Companies that had bid for the projects have now been encouraged to register in the first round of the pre-qualification process for the 300 MW Sakaka solar IPP in Al Jouf and the second round of the tender process for the Rafha plant, which are being undertaken under the NREP, one of the bidders told Gulf Construction.

The NREP has been launched by the Renewable Energy Project Development Office (Repdo). The programme targets development of 9.5 GW of renewable energy by 2023 in support of the kingdom’s Vision 2030, with an interim target of 3.45 GW of renewable power capacity by 2020 under the National Transformation Program (NTP).

The SEC had earlier planned to set up two solar photovoltaic (PV) plants having a capacity of 80 and 20 MW, respectively, at Al Jouf and Rafha. Four qualified consortia - alfanar with Total; Marubeni and Jinko; Engie; and Fotovatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) - had submitted bids for the project by the bid deadline of February 28. However, before the commercial bids were opened, SEC announced that it was calling off the IPP mandate. - TradeArabia News Service