The South African Wind Energy Association (Sawea) and the renewable power sector have welcomed the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s (DMRE) announcement to open a new procurement round as another step towards addressing energy security and stimulating the role of the wind sector in South Africa’s development objectives.
The department recently announced the opening of Bid Window 6 (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), which will see Eskom procuring a further 2 600MW of renewable energy from Independent Power Producers (IPPs), of which 1.6 GW will comprise wind energy, in line with the gazetted Integrated Resource Plan 2019 (IRP2019).
“The announcement to open BW6, calling for proposals from IPPs, adds vitally needed power capacity to the country, which continues to struggle with strangled energy supply that is preventing the necessary economic recovery that South Africa so badly needs. This also adds impetus to the sector’s push for industrialisation, which relies on rolling procurement in order for the industry to attract the necessary market investment and reduce risk,” Sawea CEO Niveshen Govender said.
This announcement comes off the back of Bid Window 5, which was opened a year ago and is expected to reach financial closure by the end of this month, heralding the rebirth of the wind energy industry following a hiatus of almost seven years. The wind energy industry is dependent on policy tones set by the government.
Govender said Sawea was grateful to the various government departments for implementing a number of procurement-enabling policies over the past few years. It said the policy shifts indicated a clear direction in terms of plans to procure new generation capacity on an ongoing basis, in line with the energy roadmap, which will see 14.4 GW of new wind power generated over the next decade.
“South Africa can address fundamental challenges of energy access, energy security and climate change through the deployment of renewable energy. Furthermore, renewable technologies present potential for the creation of new industries, job creation and localisation across the value chain,” Govender added,
The department has confirmed that the closing date for Bid Submission is August 11.
This announcement comes just a week after the DMRE’s confirmed postponement of the signing of power purchase agreements for the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP), which is now scheduled for the end of this month.
