A signing ceremony will be held on Thursday for three wind projects that were selected in October last year as preferred bidders under Bid Window Five (BW5) of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).
In total, 25 wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) projects were named as preferred bidders by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe following a bidding process that was launched in April last year.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has confirmed that the ceremony will take place at the IPP Office in Centurion, Gauteng, where project agreements will be signed for the Coleskop, San Kraal and Phezukomoya wind farms.
No mention was made about the nature of the agreements to be signed, but it is anticipated that actual financial close will follow at a later stage.
In addition, the department reports that information will be provided on Thursday regarding the “status of the preparations to sign with the remaining 22 preferred bidders under the REIPPPP BW5”.
The bid window was the first bidding round to be held following a seven-year disruption to the REIPPPP after Eskom refused to enter into contracts to buy electricity from projects procured in 2014.
There was an initial expectation that the projects would reach financial close by the end of April at the latest, but the process has been hampered by slow delivery of grid connection Budget Quotes from Eskom, as well as difficulties solar projects had in meeting the local-content stipulation placed on PV panels.
In addition, there have been several reports indicating that the commercial viability of several of the projects has been severely undermined by steep inflation in energy markets, fuelled by Covid lockdowns in China and by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.