Bangladesh tenders 50 MW solar plant

• A pre-bid meeting has been arranged on January 20 for the project, which is being financed with a $74 million World Bank loan.

The Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh is tendering for a 50 MW solar plant at Sonagazi in the Feni district with a pre-bid meeting organized on January 20.

Bidders for the project, which has received a $74 million loan from the World Bank’s Scaling Solar program, have until February 27 to submit their proposals.

Interested developers – who will pay a non-refundable $500 to the office of the project director in Dhaka in return for bidding paperwork – must offer $1.5 million as bid security from a commercial bank in an eligible country. The tender stipulates a maximum of three partners in any joint bid.

Bidding process

The procurement exercise will be conducted as an envelope bidding process in line with the World Bank’s procurement regulations for investment project financing borrowers.

The successful bidder will be responsible for facilities including the power evacuation system, transmission lines, a bay extension at the Mirsarai 230 kV substation and related civil works such as a dam or dyke.

Interested developers must have power plant experience as a contractor, sub-contractor or management contractor for at least five years before the bid submission deadline. If that experience is as a contractor, bidders must have conducted at least two $30 million-plus contracts since January 2010 which were similar to the proposed 50 MW Sonagazi plant and its associated works.

Requirements

The tender document further specified bidders should have experience of completing 30 MWp or higher solar power plants connected with a public grid network, with at least one project having been in operation for at least two years.

Contenders should also have experience of constructing a dam or dyke at least 3km long along a river bank or the sea to a height of at least 3m; of building a transmission line at least 15 km long and with a voltage of at least 132 kV; and of realizing a substation to the same minimum voltage requirements.

According to the Bangladeshi government’s central procurement technical unit, the intention is to bring the power plant online by June 2021 as part of efforts to accelerate electricity generation capacity development and to increase the volume of clean energy produced in the nation.