Byo Power Station tender stopped

Lloyd Gumbo, Harare Bureau
The Zimbabwe Power Company has stopped the tender for the rehabilitation and upgrading of the Bulawayo Power Station after the Export and Import Bank of India changed regulations for the $87 million loan facility.

The government of Zimbabwe and the Exim Bank of India last October signed an $87 million line of credit for the project to increase generation capacity of the plant from 30 megawatts to 90MW.

The tender process that had opened in December last year, for the replacement of existing boilers and refurbishment of existing alternators and balance of plant was stopped on January 20, 2016.In correspondence seen by our Harare Bureau, ZPC managing director, Engineer Noah Gwariro advised bidders of the development.

“In terms of the revised guidelines, Exim Bank shall invite Expression of Interest from Indian companies and undertake a pre-qualification exercise for the project,” said Eng Gwariro.

“The list of pre-qualified companies will be provided by Exim Bank to the government of Zimbabwe (GoZ). Thereafter the project will be put under a competitive bidding process by the government of Zimbabwe.

“The Exim Bank has advised GoZ to stop the current tendering process. As such, the tendering process that has been running will not be pursued any further. The tendering process will be pursued as per the new set of guidelines.”

However, this has courted the ire of some local bidders who argued that they should have been considered first as a way of creating employment.

“What it means is that employment is being exported to India and now it’s unlikely that there’ll be a local component in the rehabilitation of the Bulawayo Power Station,” said one of the bidders. Another one added:

“Initially, they had advised that a local company would engage an Indian firm after winning the tender at 25 percent local component and 75 percent for the Indian firm. But now, that the exercise will be conducted in India.

“It means they will shortlist and send the names of the companies here. These companies will then refurbish the Power Station without the participation of locals at all.

“What people should appreciate is that this is a loan and not a grant. So the government must have stood its ground to ensure there’s employment creation and the money circulates here.”

But Eng Gwariro said withdrawal of the tender was done with authority from the State Procurement Board.

He said the changes in the tender process would not affect the project.

“The EPC tender closes in March 2016, thereafter adjudication and due diligence will be carried out by Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC). The project is expected to start in the third quarter of 2016.

“The repowering exercise will involve replacement of the obsolete chain grate boiler technology with Circulating Fluidised Bed Combustion Boilers (CFBC), a new form of technology that burns various grades of coal more efficiently.

“Other works will involve the refurbishment of turbines and generators as well as the balance of plant, thus, enhancing operations at the small thermal power station,” said Eng Gwariro.