The contracted works are to be co-financed by German bilateral financial cooperation funds through the German Development Bank (KfW). The project concerns the design, procurement, construction, installation, testing, commissioning of an FPV array with an installed capacity of at least 30 MWp (DC), as well as operation and maintenance for a period of two years.
The project shall be executed as a turnkey contract by a contractor under the FIDIC Yellow Book (Conditions of Contract for Plant & Design Build, First Edition 1999), according to a procurement notice published on 26 February on the website of Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), Germany’s economic development agency.
The award of the contract is expected in Q3 2025. Site preparations are expected to begin in the same quarter and followed by construction works. The total construction period shall not exceed 18 months.
The reservoir on which the FPV array is to be installed is impounded by the Kpong hydropower dam, also known as the Akuse dam, on the lower Volta River. The Kpong hydropower dam, which was commissioned in 1982, operates as a run-of-river scheme in tandem with the Akosombo hydropower plant, which is located 24 km upstream, balancing its discharge, ensuring efficient hydropower production whilst supporting irrigation.
The facility comprises an 18 m-high, 240 m-long earthfill dam with a rockfill upper face, a concrete spillway, and a powerhouse with four units, with an operating capacity of 148 MW and a nameplate capacity of 160 MW.
The contractor must possess relevant experience and qualifications for execution of this contract. In particular, the contractor must have executed either at least one construction contract with a minimum value of EUR 25 million or currency equivalent or two contracts with a minimum value of EUR 15 million each or currency equivalent, and must have executed either at least one ground-mounted utility-scale solar PV plant with a minimum installed capacity of 20 MWp on design build basis or one utility-scale solar FPV plant with a minimum installed capacity of 5 MWp. It must also have undertaken design, engineering and installation of an aggregate of 10 MWp of FPV capacity with a minimum FPV plant size of 0.5 MWp each. This experience may also be provided by a specialized sub-contractor. Full qualifying criteria can be viewed in the procurement notice published on the website of GTAI.
This Prequalification for Consulting Services will be guided by the latest version of KfW’s “Guidelines for the Procurement of Consulting Services, Works, Plant, Goods and Non-Consulting Services in Financial Cooperation with Partner Countries” (available on www.kfw-entwicklungsbank.de). Applications and bids for this tender shall be submitted electronically only through the e-procurement platform Exfitender by the provider Exficon GmbH. No physical submissions of applications and bids will be required.
Further information is available in the prequalification document. To receive the prequalification document, please contact the employer’s representative at secwrred@vra.com with copy (cc) to the Tender Agent René Meyer (tender@renemeyer.org) with title “PQ FSPV1 (Kpong Hydropower Reservoir)”.
