The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) postponed receiving bids for the establishment of a 200 MW solar plant west of the Nile for six months. Sources at the company said that postponing the tender was forced by the lack of bids. "The deadline was set to expire on Wednesday, but no companies made their bids," the source noted. He told Daily News Egypt that the EETC will continue measurements of the project land, especially as the project will be implemented through the build, own, operate (BOO) scheme. The EETC will buy energy produced from the plant for 25 years. Before the postponement, 41 companies bought the tender specification brochure. Among these companies were Alfanar Construction, CSC Energy Corp, Global Enterprise, Biotherm Energy, Orascom, and Shanghai Electric. Should the tender be relaunched, the source said that the EETC will analyse the bids and shortlist companies before awarding the tender. A project manager at a solar power company said that his company will not make a bid in the tender, as other feed-in tariff projects have stopped since two years. He explained that the slowness in the government's proceedings is the main reason for the lack of progress on the company's front.
