The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) is seeking bids to develop 3,200 MW of wind power as part of the much-anticipated and delayed Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP) seventh bid window (BW7) to 4 As of March 30, 1,800 MW of solar photovoltaic power (PV) will be provided.
Meanwhile, the first Gas Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (GIPPPP) has been launched on a site-independent basis, with DMRE saying it will conduct a separate procurement process for 1,000 MW of capacity to be developed near the port of Ngqura, in the Eastern Cape .
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The deadline for bids for the GIPPPP, which targets onshore power generation facilities, is August 30.
DMRE aims to announce the preferred bidder within three months of the end of the bidding period and said financial closing will occur approximately four months after the preferred bidder is announced.
The second round of tenders under the Battery Energy Storage Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (BESIPPPP) is seeking facilities with a minimum size of 77 MW and a maximum size of 153 MW, all with four hours of storage capacity.
This procurement round envisages the construction of eight storage facilities near Eskom’s selected substations in the North West Supply Region, namely Mercury, Carmel, Hermes, Ngwedi, Midas, Marang and Bighorn substations.
BESIPPPP requires a minimum 95% availability of 8,760 hours per contract year, and the plant is expected to provide interim, periodic and supplemental reserves.
On November 30, DMRE announced the list of preferred bidders for the first round of BESIPPPP and reported that negotiations were underway for a project at a fifth site.
The four power plants are each earmarked for development in the Northern Cape, with a combined capacity of 360 MW/1,440 MWh and a total investment of R10 billion.
These three RFPs were the first to be launched after the failure of the REIPPPP BW6 section. Only preferred bidders will be selected to receive 1,000 MW of solar PV quota in a round expected to procure 4,200 MW of solar PV quota.
This comes after Eskom noted that grid-connected capacity, which formed the basis of 23 tenders competing for 3,200 MW of wind power, had been taken over by independent power producers (IPPs) seeking private power purchase agreements.
This development has led Eskom to introduce new temporary rules for the issuance of grid connection offers and quotations, moving from the first-come, first-served model previously used to a so-called first-come, first-served model approach. and stated its intention to move to a closed process in the future.
In a statement confirming the three tenders, DMRE urged potential bidders to note available network capacity in different service areas, as shown in Eskom’s 2025 Generation Connection Capacity Assessment (GCCA), released at the end of October.
There was no mention of the proposed addendum to the GCCA, which sets out a curtailment framework that could free up grid capacity in areas where the GCCA said it currently does not have the capacity to release new power.
As is the norm with government IPP tendering methods, potential bidders are required to pay a non-refundable fee of R25,000 for each RFP submitted for the project.
The department said it will hold bidding meetings for the three bidding windows on January 17 and 18 on electronic platforms to provide further information on eligibility criteria and bidding expectations.
