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The head of South Africa’s IPP Office, Bernard Magoro has provided some clarity on the tender schedule for its various power programmes in an interview with Engineering News.

The next bid window in South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) - bid window 7 (BW7) - will open in September with an allocation of 5,000MW.

BW8 will also have an allocation of 5,000MW and will be launched in March 2024.

The second round of the Energy Storage Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (ESIPPPP) will be launched in March for a total of 1,230MW.

The 3,000MW gas-to-power IPP programme has been split into two. At the end of September, a ‘site-agnostic’ request for proposals will be released for 2,000MW of gas-to-power IPPs. This will be followed later by a tender for 1,000MW of capacity to be located at Coega, in the Eastern Cape.

In August, ahead of BW7, Eskom is due to publish a Generation Connection Capacity Assessment (GCCA) detailing where there is grid capacity for renewables. This is to avoid a repetition of the sixth bid round when it became apparent none was available for wind farms after proposals had already been requested. 

The article makes no mention of the plan to procure 2,500MW of nuclear energy that was mentioned in parliament in May along with the above programmes. At the time, it was said a tender would be issued in the fourth quarter.

Engineering News also reports that the default component of the government guarantees for BW7 will be reduced to 80% from 100% due to the current level of contingent liabilities held by the National Treasury.

Photo: Solar farm in South Africa (© Douw Jager | Dreamstime)