IPP head Bernard Magoro said the office had approved the extensions only on Wednesday after widespread complaints from bidders in previous windows. Picture: Courtney Africa Independent Newspapers.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has granted a three-month extension for bid submissions for renewable energy bid windows, and another two-month extension for projects to reach commercial close.
The DMRE’s Independent Power Producer office announced this yesterday at a bidders’ conference to launch Bid Window 3 of the Battery Energy Storage Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (BESIPPP).
IPP head Bernard Magoro said the office had approved the extensions only on Wednesday after widespread complaints from bidders in previous windows that the Bid Window submission and reaching of commercial close periods were limiting, given the strenuous requirements of the application process and securing of funding for projects.
Magoro said all other application protocols and procedures remained the same, save that economic development or social responsibility was to be have a score of 10 out of a 100 points and the commitment made by the bidder would be monitored scrupulously.
Bid Window 3 of the BESIPPP is set to secure 616 megawatt hours (MWh) or 2 464MWh of battery storage capacity and would be split among five sub-stations, namely: Harvard, Leander, Theseus, Everest and Merapi sub-stations in the Free State.
The IPP programme currently has 93 mixed renewable energy projects and two open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) all delivering a daily 7 335MW to the grid.
Magoro said there were currently 1 900MW of renewables under construction, with most expected to come to commercial close at the end of this year.
A further 10 projects to deliver 1 150MW are expected to move to construction phase by the end of the year to hopefully connect to the grid by the end of 2025.
He said the IPP office was running an unprecedented four programmes in parallel between wind, solar and battery storage while the request for proposal for gas was expected to be out soon as well.
Eskom’s chief engineer for transmission grid, Caswell Ndhlovu, said the Western Cape had been discounted for battery storage technology because of the erratic nature of the energy source.
“There are times when the wind is blowing optimally and when the batteries are full we cannot discharge that energy and when the wind is blowing poorly we cannot charge the batteries,“ Ndhlovu said.
“So the Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces were identified in a study we did that they had certain efficiencies for battery storage. We would need a very large storage capacity for wind.”
The Request for Proposal for Battery Storage Bid Window 2 was released in December, and is expected to procure 615MW (2 460MWh) battery energy storage capacity.
The units are split into eight storage facilities close to transmission sub-stations in the North West, namely: Mercury, Carmel, Hermes, Ngwedi, Midas, Marang and Bighorn.
Bid Window 1 is a 75MW project to be located in De Aar, Northern Cape, and offers a hybrid solar PV and battery storage technology.
Its preferred bidders are Oasis Aggeneis, Mogobe BESS, Oasis Mookodi, and Oasis Nieuwehoop.
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