Name and Location
Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) – third round, South Africa.

Client
Department of Energy.

Project Description
Seventeen renewable-energy developers have been appointed as preferred bidders, following the conclusion of the third bid-submission round under the REIPPPP.

The Department of Energy (DoE) received 93 bid applications and the projects represented by the 17 preferred bidders have a collective installed capacity of 1 471.5 MW, comprising seven onshore wind bidders (787 MW), six solar photovoltaic (PV) bidders (450 MW), one 16.5 MW biomass bidder, one 18 MW landfill gas bidder and two concentrated solar power (CSP) bidders (200 MW).

Value
Not stated.

Duration
The winning bidders are expected to sign project agreements with the DoE by July 30, 2014, after which developers will have about one month to finalise all documentation and foreign-currency hedging before project roll-out is set to begin.

Latest Developments
Absa Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) will provide R10.8-billion of debt funding for six projects, comprising wind, solar PV and CSP, under the third round of the REIPPPP.

Absa CIB has committed about one-third of the total debt committed overall by South Africa’s commercial banks for the REIPPPP’s third bidding window, with the projects supported by Absa totalling a combined yearly power output of 635 MW.

Absa started working closely with local and international independent power producers (IPPs) since South Africa’s IPP plan was announced.

Meanwhile, Nedbank group investment banking division Nedbank Capital has underwritten debt funding for seven of the 11 debt-funded projects included in the 17 projects awarded in the third window of the REIPPPP.

The R6.8-billion debt funding provided by Nedbank Capital for projects totalling R26.2-billion of the R44-billion in projects, as advised by the Minister of Energy, is the highest proportion of debt funding by a commercial bank in the REIPPPP 3.

Nedbank Capital has also underwritten black economic-empowerment funding to six of the equity-funded transactions.

The projects funded by Nedbank Capital include two solar PV, two wind and two CSP projects, as well as one landfill gas project.

To date, Nedbank Capital was mandated to act as the lead arranger of 22 of the 64 projects that have already been awarded in the three rounds of the REIPPPP.

The fourth bidding round of the REIPPPP is expected to start in July 2014 and to be finalised a year later.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Mainstream Renewable Power, Abengoa, Cobra Energia.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Mainstream Renewable Power, Emmet Curley, tel +353 1 290 2027 or
email emmet.curley@mainstreamrp.com.
Abengoa communications department, Patricia Malo de Molina Meléndez, tel +34 954 93 71 11 or email communication@abengoa.com.
Cobra Energia, tel +91 456 95 00, fax +91 456 94 50 or email central@grupocobra.com.