At the tender for the rehabilitation and modernization of hydropower plant Vidraru, Romanian electricity producer Hidroelectrica received four bids.
Bids were submitted by the same companies/consortia as in the previous tender for HPP Vidraru rehabilitation, which was cancelled in April – Chinese consortium consisting of Sinohydro Corporation and Power China Chengdu Engineering, French-Romanian consortium consisting of GE Hydro France, Elecnor SA and Grid Solution Romania, consortium of Romania’s Romelectro and Slovenian Litrostroj Power and a consortium of Turkish Gulsan Insaat Sanayi Turizm Nakliyat VE Ticaret and Chinese Zhefu Holding Group.
The reason for the cancellation of the previous tender is that only unacceptable or non-compliant bids have been submitted and, in line with the Romanian legislation, the contracting entity has the obligation to cancel the procedure for awarding the contract or framework agreement in the following cases: if no bids has been submitted or no admissible bids has been submitted.
According to tender documentation, the subject of the tender are both the design and carrying out of the rehabilitation of the plant, while the selected contractor will have 56 months to complete the works. Hidroelectrica already launched this tender in 2016, but it was cancelled a year later after the company concluded that all submitted bids were unacceptable or not compliant with the tender documentation. The rehabilitation project aims to extend the HPP’s life by at least 30 years and toincrease the active power of each generator from 55 MW to at least 58.8 MW, while ensuring better reliability, lowering the maintenance needs and increasing safety in operation. Built between 1961 and 1966, HPP Vidraru was designed to operate predominantly during peak hours, with an installed capacity of 220 MW and an annual average energy output of 400 GWh.
