The Renewable Energy Market Transformation (REMT) unit at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), again, on Friday, called on eligible consultancy firms to indicate their interest in providing a consulting service for the revision of the Renewable Energy White Paper Policy and Target, as part of the REMT.

The REMT project was launched to help South Africa eliminate barriers to renewable energy development through support for policy, regulation, legislation, financing mechanisms, institutional capacity building and grant finance for selected project development.

The Department of Energy (DoE) has appointed the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to assist with implementation of the REMT project through the REMT unit that has been established within DBSA.

The REMT unit said that the South African government had received $6-million in funding from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) towards the cost of Renewable Energy Market Transformation (REMT) and that it intends to apply part of the proceeds to payments for goods, works, related services and consulting services to be procured under this project. This project will be jointly financed by the South African government and the private sector.

The White Paper on Renewable Energy was essentially a subset of the 1998 White Paper on Energy and, therefore, its review would be undertaken within this context in order to ensure coherence of Government Policy.

The DoE said that the key objectives of this review would be to revise the White Paper on Renewable Energy Policy of 2003 and the renewable energy targets contained therein.

REMT had announced earlier this year that the planned completion date for the project had been extended to February 2010 in order to accommodate concerns raised over tight project timelines.

Among others, the services required from consultants included: the establishment of the policy context and conducting situation analysis for the policy review, as well as identifying the prioritised role of renewable energy in current and future policy realities.

The consultant would also have to establish essential elements of the renewable energy policy implementation, and recommend revised renewable energy targets, strategic goals, policy objectives and deliverables through baseline information analysis and macroeconomic impact analysis.

The appointed consultant would also need to make recommendations on appropriate policy direction, regulatory framework and legislation, and review and development of appropriate and effective funding support mechanisms.

The REMT unit said on Friday that interested consultancy firms must provide information indicating that they were qualified to perform the services for which they were expressing their interests.

It was also required that any firm responding to this request for expression of interest (EoI) must have at least ten years of relevant consultancy experience including previous experience and exposure in renewable energy policy and regulation, as well as sufficient knowledge of South African energy policies and legislations.

Consultants would have until November 13 to submit their EoI to the REMT unit.