REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

(CONSULTANCY SERVICES – FIRMS SELECTION)

Assignment Title:     Consultancy Service for Provision of Transactional Advisory Services for the Namibia Renewable Energy Scale-up Support Project.

Procurement Reference No: SC/EOI/NPWR- 01/2024

                                                 (NA-NAMPOWER-397098-CS-QCBS)

1. INTRODUCTION

Namibia Power Corporation (Pty) Ltd (hereinafter referred to as NamPower) is inviting Expressions of Interest (EOI) from qualified and experienced Consultancy Firms to provide “Transactional Advisory Consultancy Services for the Namibia Renewable Energy Scale-Up Support Project”. This EOI will be used to draw-up a shortlist of experienced Consultants for Transactional Advisory Services. Shortlisted Consultants will then be invited to participate in the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Consultancy Services of a Transactional Advisor.

2. BACKGROUND

NamPower has obtained a grant from the World Bank – International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) toward the cost of feasibility and development studies and procurement support for the Namibia Renewable Energy Scale-Up Support Project; and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services.

The grant will specifically target various aspects of renewable energy development. This includes resource assessment studies for wind and solar photovoltaic (PV), site studies and environmental permitting studies for solar PV, Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), and wind projects, feasibility studies for solar PV, BESS, and wind projects, as well as associated transmission infrastructure integrations. The grant will also fund transaction advisory services for renewable energy Independent Power Producers (IPPs), contributing to the development of a conducive regulatory and contractual environment for competitive IPP procurement.

NamPower has identified several sites for solar PV, BESS, and wind projects, and the consulting services financed by the grant will go towards the development of these sites.

3. SCOPE OF SERVICES

The consulting services (“the Services”) required under this Expression of Interest are Consultancy Services to provide Transactional Advisory Services. The services will include technical, commercial, and legal advisory services to support the structuring and tendering of bankable and sustainable renewable energy projects. The assignment aims to hire a firm/consortium of Consultants to provide support to NamPower to develop and successfully implement procurement for a 40MW solar PV IPP project and a 300 MW wind project through IPP and/or Public Private Partnership (PPP) based project. In preparation for the procurement of these renewable energy projects, NamPower is planning to conduct:

1. Solar PV and wind resource assessment,
2. Site studies,
3. Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the selected sites, and
4. Feasibility Studies.

The mandate for transaction advisory would complement (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) in preparing the package needed for NamPower to successfully launch the procurement of solar PV and wind projects.

The transaction advisory support will cover four main areas:

A. Technical advisory: support NamPower to:

1. Define the technical criteria of the Request for Qualification (RfQ);
2. Draft the Minimum Technical Specifications and testing conditions for the Request for Proposal (RfP) based on the conclusions of the Feasibility Study;
3. Evaluate technical proposals;
4. Provide technical inputs to Project Documents;
5. Support the negotiations with the Preferred Bidders on the technical side;
6. Support the inclusion of socio-economic and gender benefits as evaluation criteria in the procurement process; and
7. more generally address technical questions/comments up to financial close of the RE projects.

B. Legal advisory: support NamPower to:

1. draft the RfP and Project Agreements;
2. Evaluate compliance of proposals submitted by Bidders from a legal perspective;
3. Responsible for all legal requirements during the tenure of the contract 
4. Support the negotiations with the Preferred Bidders on the legal side; and
5. More generally address legal questions/comments up to financial close of the RE projects.

C. Financial advisory: support to NamPower to:

1. Lead and coordinate the bidding process as a whole;
2. Manage the other consultants if applicable;
3. Advise on bankability matters;
4. Lead and run financial modelling to inform the decision-making process;
5. Evaluate the bids from a financial/global perspective;
6. Support the negotiations with the Preferred Bidders on the financial/global technical side; and
7. More generally address financial/cross-cutting questions/comments up to financial close of the RE projects.

D. Capacity building: knowledge and expertise transfer NamPower staff

This fourth area will be transversal to the three areas listed above and will include but not limited to supporting NamPower through technical assistance, capacity building, and tailored training, with the objective to increase the capacity within NamPower to development and implement sustainable and bankable renewable IPP energy projects.

These services are envisaged to have a duration of approximately 24 months. The scope of services details and all deliverables from the Consultant will be detailed in the Terms of Reference (TOR) which will be issued with the Request for Proposal (RFP) to the shortlisted Consultants in the subsequent bidding phase.

NamPower invites eligible Consultants to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the corresponding Services. The short-listing criteria will be as follows:

1. Core Business: minimum five (5) years of experience in providing Transactional Advisory Services for utility-scale renewable energy projects,
2. Demonstrate experience of having satisfactorily completed a combined magnitude of 300 MW of wind and solar projects,
3. Demonstrate experience of the Consultant having acted as the lead consultant and having supported tender preparation and implementation of utility-scale renewable projects executed by private companies under an Independent Power Producer (IPP), or Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) scheme or any other auction, where the Consultant acted as the lead transaction advisor and where the IPP or PPP project was successfully implemented. By having satisfactorily completed at least four (4) transactional advisory assignments, whereby:
   1. Two (2) projects are onshore wind projects, from which one (1) onshore wind project assignment of at least 100MW in magnitude, which has reached financial close in the past five (5) years, and
   2. Two (2) projects are solar PV projects, from which one (1) project assignment of at least 40MW in magnitude, which has reached financial close in the past five (5) years.

Interested Consultants must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the Services by completing and submitting the REoI document that can be downloaded at the NamPower website, link: https://www.nampower.com.na/bids.aspx .  Any NamPower responses to Clarifications requests and/ or Amendments to the REoI document will also be posted at this website link.

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to the conditions that Procurement of contracts financed by the proceeds of the proposed World Bank (IBRD) grant will be conducted through the procedures as specified in the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers (July 2016) (Procurement Regulations), revised in November 2017, August 2018, and November 2020 and is open to all eligible firms.

The service is being procured on an Open international basis and will be advertised INTERNATIONALLY and is open to any firm, whether local or international, provided that it meets the shortlisting criteria set out above.

Consultants may associate with other firms to enhance their qualifications but should indicate clearly whether the association is in the form of a joint venture and/or a sub-consultancy. Any party to the association, either joint venture member’s or sub-contractor’s experience will count on the qualifications criteria. In the case of a Joint Venture (JV), the Consultant shall specify the lead partner and all the partners in the joint venture shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire contract, if selected.

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraph 3.14 to 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers dated July 2016, revised in November 2017, August 2018, November 2020, and September 2023 setting forth the World Bank’s Policy on Conflict of Interest.

Only five (5) to eight (8) eligible Consultants will be shortlisted or a small number of Consultants as per paragraph 7.17 of the World Bank Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers.

A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Quality and Cost-based Selection (QCBS) method set out in the World Bank Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers. Only shortlisted Consultants will be approached directly by NamPower to submit proposals for the services required in the RFP phase.

All correspondences and further information requests related to this EOI shall be made in English. Any clarification sought by any firm in respect of the EOI shall be addressed in writing, as per the Clarifications schedule indicated below.

Clarifications closed on 18 December 2023 – 12 January 2024 (all days inclusive), then open until last date of clarifications set for 19 January 2024.

Mr Mathew Nelenge

Procurement Management Unit,

NamPower Centre

15 Luther Street

Tel: +264-61-205 2324

E-mail: retf.procurement@nampower.com.na

The office hours are: 08:00 – 16:00 (Namibian Time) on Monday – Friday.

The EOI document shall be prepared and submitted in the English language and shall be submitted and received in HARD COPY ONLY. An electronic copy (which should be a copy of the full submission, in a searchable PDF format, on a USB storage device) should be included within the sealed envelope.

The EOI document must be delivered in HARD COPY form to the address below:

Procurement Management Unit

Attn: Elizabeth Nashidengo

P O Box 2864 Windhoek, Namibia

15 Luther Street, Windhoek

Tel: +264 61 205 2321

The deadline for the submission of this EOI is:

Closing Date: [26 January 2024]

Closing Time: [10:00 am Namibian Time]

The EoI must be submitted in a sealed envelope marked:

“SC/EOI/NPWR-01/2024: Expression of Interest for Consultancy Services for Provision of Transactional Advisory Services; Submission Date [insert date dd/mm/yyyy]; Submitted by [insert name of firm or firms]