Procurement of renewable energy a success

The Department of Energy (DoE) reported to the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy on the progress on the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

17 out of 93 applicants qualified as preferred bidder in the third bidding window which will take 1456 MW. There have been no bids for each small hydro and biogas. Bids fail mainly because of the qualification criteria set in the procurement documents could not be matched. This also happened to two small hydro projects.

Illustration: Different types of renewable energy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another observation is that across technologies, the indexed prices have decreased from 1^st till 3^rd bidding window. For example PV felt from R3.098 to R0.990 per kwh and wind sits now at R0.737 coming from R1.284 per kwh.

Concerning the determination on cogeneration (800 MW) DoE informed that the procurement documents are being developed to request for proposals early next year.

As it comes to the determination from gas of coal base load (475 MW) DoE underlined that they want to follow a “holistic approach” and therefore have opted for a study on gas which delays the development of procurement documents.

A success story is definitely the job creation coming along with the IPPs as approximately 13308 jobs will be created overall with 7300 new opportunities given to unemployed youth.

[List of bidders window 1 and 2]