Shortlist for 300MW power station unveiled
Mbongeni Mguni | Sunday December 8, 2013 21:28
Known as the 300 MW brownfield, the project consists of extending the existing power station by designing, financing, constructing, owning, operating and maintaining a 2 x 150MW coal fired power plant to be built at the pithead of Morupule Coal Mine.
The successful bidder will enter into a Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) with the Botswana Power Corporation outlining the tariff charge for power produced over the duration of the contract.
According to PPADB documents, the initial list of 12 bidders for the project has since been cut down to seven, featuring some of the world’s biggest energy firms.
The short-listed firms include Sumitomo Corporation, a 94-year-old Japanese group boasting a presence in 65 countries and assets of nearly eight trillion Yen (P710 billion).
Another Japanese firm on the shortlist is Marubeni Corporation, whose Power Projects and Infrastructure Division has 50 years experience in the IPP arena.
Marubeni Corporation boasts assets of about 5.7 trillion Yen (P506 billion) and a net income for the full year ended March 2013 of 206 billion Yen (P18.3 billion).
Also short-listed is the Korea Electric Power Corporation, which is South Korea’s largest electricity utility.
Known as KEPCO, the group has total assets of US$133.2 billion (P1.2 trillion) and experience in power generation and plant management around the world.
Closer to home, Jindal Steel and Power, the current leaseholders of Mmamabula Energy Complex in the Kgatleng District, have also been placed on the short-list, together with Cennergi, a one-year-old joint venture between India’s largest integrated private power utility, Tata Power and South African giant, Exxaro.
Other short-listed bidders include US firm, Endeavour Energy and the ACWA Power Consortium comprising partners from Saudi Arabia and Germany.
ACWA, a Saudi Arabian-born global power developer, is also in partnership with African Energy Resources in the bid to build a separate 300MW power station elsewhere in Botswana.
African Energy Resources’ leases in eastern Botswana are estimated to hold nearly four billion tonnes of measured coal resources. The recent unveiling of the short-list marks a three-month period of intensive bid analysis and adjudication conducted primarily by the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources which floated the pre-qualification tender in June.
To be included in the shortlist, the initial 12 bidders were required to reach more than 70 points out of a 100 based on indicators such as strength of the technical and financial proposal, including financial closing experience as well as compliance tests.
The firms were also required to prove Independent Power Producer development, construction and operation experience.
According to PPADB documents, the seven short-listed firms will receive a Request For Proposals package which they will use to fine-tune their initial proposals. The Botswana Power Corporation had hoped to announce the winning contractor before the end of the year and have the new power station running in 2015.