Enel Green Power (EGP) country manager for South Africa Lamberto Dai Pra has described government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) as a case study for the industry, which is capturing the attention of other countries.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the Africa Energy Indaba, Dai Pra indicated that the State’s guarantee for the REIPPPP projects had improved the attractiveness of the programme, adding that the company remained keen on pursuing additional projects in the country.

Government procured the capacity through competitive bidding rounds and backed Eskom, which committed itself to connecting and buying all the electricity produced, with a guarantee.

Following three bid windows, government was in the process of procuring around 4 000 MW from more than 60 projects and the Department of Energy (DoE) indicated recently that details of the fourth bidding round would be released in the not-too-distant future.

Government had also announced that 32 projects, with a capacity of just over 1 500 MW, had already been connected to the grid and that the programme had attracted around R140-billion in private investment.

EGP, the clean-energy unit of Italian energy multinational Enel had some 9 500 MW of renewable-energy capacity installed across 20 countries globally. In South Africa, it was building solar photovoltaic and wind projects with a combined capacity of around 500 MW.

Dai Pra indicated that, under the DoE-managed programme, developments had moved ahead “relatively easily compared with other countries”.

Standard Bank’s Rentia van Tonder, who also participated in the panel discussion, concurred, arguing that the government “underpin” had been key to kick-starting the roll-out of the renewable-energy projects.

She added that the clear guidelines in the requests for proposals had also assisted in attracting developers and financiers to the programme.