Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) president Sugen Pillay urged government on Wednesday to urgently restart its “successful” renewable-energy procurement programme to help address the country’s prevailing electricity crisis.
Briefing the media in Johannesburg, Pillay said CESA was particularly keen for the fifth bid window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) to be initiated, as the REIPPPP was a stand-out example of a public procurement scheme that had worked.
“In addition to its value as a short-term intervention towards addressing our electricity crisis, it will also inject, albeit small, much-needed project opportunities for consulting engineers and contractors,” he added.
The Integrated Resource Plan 2019 (IRP 2019), which was published in October, calls for 1 600 MW of wind and 1 000 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity to be added in most years between 2020 and 2030, translating to the addition of more than 17 000 MW of new wind and 8 200 MW of new solar PV (excluding embedded generation) capacity in ten years.
For procurement to be initiated, however, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe needs to publish Ministerial determinations in line with Section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act and to do so with the concurrence of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.
Briefing the media in Johannesburg, Pillay said CESA was particularly keen for the fifth bid window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) to be initiated, as the REIPPPP was a stand-out example of a public procurement scheme that had worked.
“In addition to its value as a short-term intervention towards addressing our electricity crisis, it will also inject, albeit small, much-needed project opportunities for consulting engineers and contractors,” he added.
The Integrated Resource Plan 2019 (IRP 2019), which was published in October, calls for 1 600 MW of wind and 1 000 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity to be added in most years between 2020 and 2030, translating to the addition of more than 17 000 MW of new wind and 8 200 MW of new solar PV (excluding embedded generation) capacity in ten years.
For procurement to be initiated, however, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe needs to publish Ministerial determinations in line with Section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act and to do so with the concurrence of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.
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To date, Mantashe has not published the document, with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) instead focusing on a Risk Mitigation Power Procurement Programme, the implementation of which will be guided by responses to a request for information (RFI) on short-term supply and demand options.
The DMRE had given itself a month from the January 31 RFI closing date to evaluate the responses and develop a procurement programme or programmes.
Read more......
The DMRE had given itself a month from the January 31 RFI closing date to evaluate the responses and develop a procurement programme or programmes.
Read more......
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