The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) says Eskom’s new Standard Offer Programme may be a reinvigoration of government’s Additional Megawatt Programme that was launched in June last year.
The original programme was also intended to buy additional energy from independent power producers (IPPs).
Eskom on September 19 announced the launch of three programmes to procure more than 1 000 MW of surplus electricity that it believed could be immediately available from existing IPPs and large companies with their own generation capacity.
The new Standard Offer Programme is one of the three programmes.
SAWEA believes there to be 120 MW of additional capacity from renewable energy IPPs that could be added to the grid, from wind and solar photovoltaic plants.
Under the Additional Megawatt Programme, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy was expected to enter into agreements with existing renewables IPPs to produce additional energy from wind and solar farms, over and above what was allowed under existing power purchase agreements.
However, SAWEA says the programme had limited success owing to arduous legal, regulatory, technical and contractual processes, which saw many of the IPPs reluctantly abstain.
“It seems that this programme is being reinvigorated, with Eskom’s Standard Offer Programme that was announced on September 19, which ushers in more streamlined processes,” notes SAWEA CEO Niveshen Govender.
SAWEA confirms that wind sector IPPs are investigating what additional capacities may be available from their individual power plants.