Gwede Mantashe, the minister of mineral resources and energy, has announced the names of the first eight successful bidders in the Department's 2000 MW Risk Mitigation IPP Procurement Programme.
The names of a further three bidders was withheld pending a Departmental "value for money" study.
The eight successful bidders will provide 1845 MW from a variety of generating technologies. The three bidders whose names have been withheld would supply a further 150 MW.
The Risk Mitigation IPP Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) was established in 2020 to procure a further 2000 MW of electricity from independent power producers (IPPs).
Unlike the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) which specified the technologies to be used (viz., wind, solar, hydro and storage), the RMIPPPP was technology agnostic and allows for bidders to select whatever technology they wanted to offer.
The eight successful bidders are, in alphabetical order:
- ACWA Power Project DAO
- Karpowership SA Coega
- Karpowership SA Richards Bay
- Karpowership SA Saldanha
- Mulilo Total Coega
- Mulilo Total Storage
- Oya Energy Hybrid Facility
- Umoyilanga Energy
These bidders have been given until 31 July 2021 to reach financial close, and set a deadline for first power of August 2022.
The average cost of electricity from these eight bidders works out to be R1,57/kWh, the minister said.
Although this is higher than Eskom's overall average cost, it is about 30% of what Eskom pays for a similar amount of electricity from its diesel-fired peaking plants which it is currently running continuously to meet demand.
