As South Africa faces its worst year for load shedding on record, minister of mineral resources and energy Gwede Mantashe has gazetted approval to add new electricity generation to the grid.
The gazette marks the start of a bidding process to provide the new electricity, the majority of which will come from solar and wind power.
This will force Eskom to buy the new electricity from the successful independent power producers.
The first electricity from these projects should land on the grid in 2022.
The gazette determines that South Africa must get 6,800 new megawatts (MW) of wind and solar PV power, while 513 MW should be procured to be generated from storage, 3,000 MW from gas and 1500 MW from coal.
“Electricity produced from the new generation capacity shall be procured through one or more tendering procedures which are fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost -effective,” the gazette states.
The gazette paves the way for the fifth so-called bid window (BW 5) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. Bids will also be received for gas-to-power plants and energy storage, as well as for coal.
No timeframe has been provided.
Source: Business Insider SA
Link: https://www.businessinsider.co.za/business/eskom-power-grid-load-shedding-goverment-2020-9
