Bosnian Serb power utility ERS has relaxed qualification requirements for the 60-MW Hrgud wind farm, widening the field of potential bidders for the project’s €95 million engineering, procurement, construction and financing contract.
The changes followed an appeal against the procurement documentation and reduced both corporate-reference and staffing requirements.
Bidders must now provide one reference for designing and constructing comparable electricity infrastructure worth at least €25 million, excluding VAT, within the past five years. The original rules required four separate references covering a wind farm of at least 30 MW, a high-voltage substation, mountain roads and a 110-kV transmission line.
ERS also reduced the required experience of nine technical specialists from five years to two and simplified rules governing professional licences and construction methodology.
The utility removed a requirement for bidders to prepare their own technical and economic viability assessment demonstrating at least 160 GWh of annual net generation.
ERS is expected to announce revised deadlines for bids through a further amendment.
The EPC+F structure requires the successful contractor or consortium to arrange financing and deliver the turbines, roads, substations and transmission infrastructure. The project in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina would comprise 10 turbines and is expected to take two years to build.
Hrgud’s measured wind speeds exceed eight metres per second, supporting expected annual generation of around 160 GWh. The easier tender conditions may improve competition, but they also transfer greater responsibility to ERS to ensure that bidders retain sufficient technical and financial capacity.
