Along with USAID, the Government of Haiti is understood to be planning a public-private partnership (PPP) for the operation and maintenance of a 10MW power plant at the Caracol Industrial Park, IJGlobal has learned.

The tender is reportedly seeking private investors to enter a 30-year concession contract that involves investing $30 million to expand access to the 24/7 power provided by the plant to new areas of northern Haiti, according to a source close to the process. Any investments made would be carried on balance sheet by the private partner and reconciliations would be expected at the end of the contract term.

It is understood that USAID owns the assets, and at the outset of the PPP, the foreign aid organisation plans to transfer ownership of the facility to the Government of Haiti, who will then lease the assets to the winning bidder. A spokesperson for USAID declined to comment on the procurement.

The request for expressions of interest is expected imminently.

The Caracol Industrial Park power plant was brought online in June 2012, and USAID hired the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) to carry out plant operations and maintenance. The plant originally burned diesel, and was converted to heavy fuel oils last year.

According to a first quarter 2016 Caracol Industrial Park report, the current power plant operator NRECA produced an average of 1.66MW of power per month and billed an average of 1.4MW of offtake for the 12-month period from April 2015 to March 2016. In the period from March 2016 through February 2017, average production rose to 1.9MW and offtake to just under 1.8MW.

Rates billed in July 2016 and December 2016 were $0.30 per kWh for Caracol Industrial Park tenants, according to quarterly reports published by the Ministry of Finance and the Economy.

Across Haiti, only 30% of the population has access to grid electricity, and national electric utility EDH is only able to provide electric service for between six and 18 hours per day to its customers. The Caracol Industrial Park power plant is said to be the only generation facility that is currently providing 24/7 power in Haiti.

Over the first five years of operations, USAID aimed to establish up to 30,000 residential connections to the grid through investment of $27 million. As of April 2017, NRECA reported a total client base outside of the Caracol Industrial Park of 8,228 clients in Caracol, Trou-du-Nord, Sainte Suzanne, Terrier Rouge, and Limonade, an area with an estimated 33,730 households.

According to one person with knowledge of the proceedings, the contract winner would be required to expand the service area of the power plant to Fort Liberte and would be encouraged to provide service to Ouanaminthe on the Haitian border with the Dominican Republic.

Once the contract is in place, current plant operator NRECA is expected to work alongside the private partner on knowledge sharing through a five-month transition period running through the end of May 2018.

According to the most recent quarterly report, wind pattern studies are under way at the Caracol Industrial Park to determine whether there is potential to augment current energy capacity with wind turbines.