December 23 (SeeNews) - North Macedonia has received ten expressions of interest in its tender for a concession contract for the construction of the Cebren hydro power plant (HPP) - a project expected to cost at least 500 million euro ($608.9 million) to 600 million euro, the government said on Wednesday.
Six consortia submitted expressions of interest with their members including Turkey's Enka, Ozaltin and Yapi Merkezi, Greece's PPC and Archirodon, Austria's EVN and Verbund, France's Eiffage and Spain's Cobra, the government said in a press release.
France's EDF, Italy's Webuild SpA Italia, Gezhouba Group China and Power Construction Corporation of China are running on their own in the pre-qualification phase of the tender.
The government will now evaluate the received expressions of interest and will invite the qualified candidates to submit their complete offers for the project in the bidding phase.
The Cebren HPP will be constructed on the Crna Reka river through a public-private partnership, in which North Macedonia's state-owned electricity company ESM will take part as a public partner, the government said. The power plant will have an installed capacity of 333 MW, allowing it to produce 1,000 GWh of electricity per year.
As part of the public-private partnership, ESM will contribute another power plant located on the Crna Reka river, HPP Tikves, into the project company, the government said earlier. The two power plants will use water from the same source and can only function at the same time if they are managed by a single entity.
($ = 0.8211 euro)