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1 000 MW gas-to-power cap placed on Richards Bay for first gas procurement round

While ‘location agnostic’, South Africa’s inaugural 2 000 MW gas-to-power (GtP) procurement round is limiting the development of facilities in the City of uMhlathuze, where KwaZulu-Natal’s deep-water Port of Richards Bay has been earmarked as a future gas hub, to 1 000 MW – a threshold that will be breached only if the remaining allocation it not taken up elsewhere in the country. Besides this restriction, the first bid window (BW1) of the Gas Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (GIPPPPP) states that facilities can be located anywhere within the borders of South Africa and must be land based.
January 18, 2024 by

Work under way to identify next battery sites amid bidding at eight North West substations

Independent Power Producer Office head Bernard Magoro reports that work is under way to identify substation sites for the upcoming third Battery Energy Storage Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (BESIPPPP) round while progressing with the second bid window (BW2) for 615 MW/2 460 MWh across eight substation sites. Speaking during a virtual bidders’ conference, Magoro acknowledged questions posed by several prospective bidders about the prospects of securing the necessary environmental authorisations in time for the sites selected for BW2, which were identified only on December 14 when the request for proposals (RFP) was published.
January 17, 2024 by

Grid constraints cast shadow over South Africa’s seventh renewables bid window

South Africa’s grid constraints are continuing to cast a shadow over the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), the seventh bidding round for which was launched in December for 3 200 MW of onshore wind and 1 800 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) after months of delay. Independent Power Producer Office head Bernard Magoro told prospective REIPPPP Bid Window Seven (BW7) bidders during a virtual conference on January 17 that the delays were largely attributed to concerns over the availability of grid-connection capacity in the wind- and solar-rich Eastern, Western and Northern Cape provinces.
January 17, 2024 by

Fast-growing ENGIE South Africa will consider grid investments under right conditions

Global independent power company ENGIE, which is prioritising the South African electricity market for significant organic and acquisitive growth, is also open to participating in grid investments should government move to open the market to private sector participation. ENGIE South Africa CEO Mohamed Hoosen tells Engineering News that the bigger group already has significant transmission grid assets globally and has also participated in build, own, operate and transfer projects.
January 16, 2024 by

Busy week for DMRE as it hosts IPP bidders conferences and IRP workshop

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) and the Independent Power Producer Office (IPPO) have a busy week ahead, with three virtual bidders conferences to be hosted over Wednesday and Thursday, and with the department also schedule to host a public workshop on the draft 2023 edition of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2023). The bidders conferences follow the release, on December 14, of three new requests for proposals (RFPs) for the public procurement of 7 615 MW of new generation capacity from wind, solar photovoltaic (PV), gas to power and battery energy storage technologies.
January 15, 2024 by

Proposed new IRP met with some skepticism

Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses the background to the publication for public comment of the latest Integrated Resource Plan (IRP); the main changes in the IRP 2023, compared with the IRP 2019; the initial reaction to the new IRP; and the public commentary process.
January 12, 2024 by

World powers ahead with renewables as South Africa’s draft plan signals pullback

While South Africa’s draft electricity plan is signalling a pullback in renewables investments for the period to 2030 relative to the prevailing policy, the rest of the world is powering ahead, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) reporting that 50% more renewables capacity was installed globally in 2023 than in 2022 and with record-breaking growth forecast for the coming five years. In its ‘Renewables 2023’ report, the IEA states that 507 GW of renewable-energy capacity was installed last year increasing the installed base to about 3 600 MW, with solar photovoltaic (PV) accounting for three-quarters of worldwide additions.
January 11, 2024 by

Preferred bidder selected to build and operate Richards Bay LNG terminal

South Africa’s State-owned Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has announced that it has selected a public-private consortium as the preferred bidder to develop and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the Port of Richards Bay’s South Dunes precinct.  The Vopak & TPL Consortium Venture was selected following a bidding process for an entity to design, develop, construct, finance, operate, and maintain the LNG terminal for a period of 25 years.
January 10, 2024 by