South Africa has issued requests for proposals (RFPs) for up to 7,615MW of additional power generation as part of its efforts to address power crisis in the country.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has formally invited bids from interested parties for 5,000MW of renewable energy, 2,000MW of gas-to-power and 615MW of battery storage capacity.
Under the Seventh Bid Submission Phase (Bid Window 7) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), the department requested bids for the development of 3,200MW of onshore wind and 1,800MW of solar photovoltaic (PV).
The last date to submit bids is 30 April 2024.
A total of 2,000MW will be procured from gas-to-power projects, under the first bid window of the Gas Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (GASIPPPP Bid Window 1), while the second Battery Energy Storage Capacity Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (BESIPPPP Bid Window 2) called for 615MW of capacity.
The closing dates for bid submission for GASIPPPP and BESIPPPP are 30 August 2024 and 30 April 2024, respectively.
According to a Reuters report, South Africa started tapping private developers more than a decade ago to acquire additional power in order to reduce dependence on state utility Eskom’s coal-fired power stations.
It has already launched six renewable energy bidding rounds, one battery storage round and an emergency ‘risk-mitigation” round for gas-fired power to tackle energy crisis.
Earlier this week, South African Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said in a press conference that the government will launch a bidding process for an additional 2,500MW of nuclear power by March 2024.
In August 2023, Kinetiko Energy announced plans to develop an onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in South Africa through a joint venture (JV) with Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC).
