Bankable competitive procurement frameworks provide a credible and repeatable route for converting identified infrastructure needs into financeable projects. They bring together structured competitive tendering, clear qualification and evaluation criteria, standardized contractual arrangements and explicit allocation of risks between public authorities, utilities, developers and lenders. Unlike stand-alone contracting mechanisms, these frameworks cover the pathway from defining the required project and inviting competition to establishing the long-term revenue arrangements needed to reach financial close. 

Competitive bidding can support price discovery and cost discipline, while long-term revenue arrangements, such as power purchase agreements or availability-based contracts, provide greater certainty over future cash flows. This combination can reduce development and financing risk, broaden participation among domestic and international investors and strengthen confidence that projects will proceed on clearly defined terms. The approach is particularly relevant where investment appetite exists but projects lack a credible route to market or a sufficiently predictable revenue model. Such frameworks are widely used for renewable generation and can also be applied, with asset-specific contractual structures, to storage, transmission and other strategic power infrastructure. When applied across successive procurement rounds, they can create a visible project pipeline, allow documentation and processes to be refined over time and support delivery at scale.

Main Outcomes of the Solution

• Business Value: Creates bankable investment opportunities by combining competitive procurement with long-term contractual revenue models, reducing financing risk and supporting private capital participation in strategic power infrastructure. 
• Institutional Efficiency & Transparency: Establishes structured and repeatable procurement processes with clear qualification requirements, evaluation criteria and contractual frameworks, improving transparency and giving developers, financiers and public authorities greater confidence throughout the project lifecycle. 
• Affordability: Supports competitive price discovery, cost discipline and efficient risk allocation, helping contain procurement and financing costs that may ultimately be borne by electricity consumers.

Key implementation and scaling factors

1. Build the technical, commercial and legal capacity of procuring authorities to design tenders, evaluate bids and manage contracts consistently across multiple projects.
2. Establish well-defined project pipelines with clear procurement timelines, technical requirements and sufficiently prepared permitting, site and grid connection arrangements where applicable.
3. Ensure long-term revenue arrangements are supported by financially credible counterparties, appropriate credit support where required and contractual terms that provide sufficient certainty over future cash flows.
4. Allocate construction, permitting, grid connection, market and project delivery risks to the parties best positioned to manage them, while avoiding risk allocation that unnecessarily increases financing or public-sector costs.
5. Set qualification and evaluation criteria that are rigorous enough to support project delivery while remaining proportionate to encourage effective competition and broad market participation.
6. Maintain predictable regulatory and market frameworks that support the procurement mechanism and associated long-term contractual arrangements. 

Case study

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) (2012 - ongoing), United Arab Emirates

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has used an independent power producer (IPP) procurement framework to develop successive phases of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which was launched in 2012. The 200 MW second phase, inaugurated in 2017, was the first phase developed under the IPP model, combining competitive procurement with long-term contractual arrangements.  

DEWA continued this approach for subsequent phases. For the 1,800 MW sixth phase, it launched the procurement process in September 2022, receiving 23 expressions of interest and subsequently prequalifying seven international bidders. Masdar was selected as preferred bidder in 2023 for the project, with investment of up to AED 5.51 billion (USD 1.50 billion as of Sep 2026). The project reached financial close in February 2024.

DEWA subsequently initiated procurement of the seventh phase under the IPP model, reporting expressions of interest from50 international companies in April 2025, subsequently prequalifying 10 international bidders. The project has now progressed to the bid evaluation stage.The successive procurement rounds illustrate how a repeatable competitive framework, combined with long-term revenue arrangements, can provide a defined route to market and mobilize private investment for large-scale renewable generation.

References:

1. IRENA - Renewable energy auctions: Design for risk allocation
2. World Bank - Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and Energy Purchase Agreements (EPAs) Public Private Partnership
3. Executive summary – Electricity Market Design – Analysis - IEA
4. Renewable Energy: Enhancing power procurement capabilities
5. Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park reduces carbon emissions in Dubai.
6. DEWA's IPP projects enhance investments in UAE and Dubai
7. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority selects the best bidder to implement the sixth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park
8. DEWA and Masdar Reach Financial Closing on 1800MW Solar Park Phase
9. Great success for DEWA as 47 global companies express interest in developing 7th phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park