The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has confirmed that five substation sites have been specified by Eskom for the public procurement of battery energy storage systems (BESS) with a combined capacity of 513 MW and a minimum of four hours of storage, or at least 2 052 MWh. A bid submission date of 17:00 on July 5 has been set and preferred bidders will be announced about two months thereafter. The projects are expected to be in operation 24 months after reaching commercial close.