Joemat-Pettersson announces new energy initiatives
Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson announced a raft of new energy initiatives for the private sector on Thursday‚ including a large expansion of the renewable energy programme and shortened procurement processes over the next year‚ designed to speed up the commissioning of new energy capacity.
Joemat-Pettersson‚ who was speaking at a Department of Energy event in Cape Town‚ also announced the successful bids of the fourth window of the renewable independent power producer (IPP) programme.
Thirteen bids that will contribute 1‚121MW to the grid were confirmed with a likely commissioning date of November 2016. This brings the total in renewable already commissioned to 5‚243MW.
Renewable energy is regarded as the quickest way to build additional capacity.
On Thursday‚ Eskom announced stage 1 load-shedding after two consecutive days in which blackouts reached stage 3‚ with almost half of capacity down because of breakages and maintenance.
Joemat-Pettersson said she "would leave no stone unturned" in accelerating the delivery of the new capacity. "Our attempt to shorten processes and speed them up is a response to the energy challenges that we need to address."
Joemat-Pettersson said that in addition to the 13 successful bids‚ she would add two additional bid processes before moving onto the fifth window in the second quarter of 2016.
As well as the "expanded round four" there will be a re-opener that will re-evaluate all unsuccessful bids from the four windows to select projects with capacity of another 1‚800MW. Following these two additional opportunities‚ a fifth window will be held in the second quarter of 2016.
Firstly‚ another set of projects will be selected from the fourth round bidders. As well the "expanded round four"‚ the Department of Energy will allow "a re-opener" that will re-evaluate all unsuccessful bids from the four windows so far. From this‚ it intends to select projects with capacity of another 1‚800MW.
Following these two additional opportunities‚ a fifth window will be held in the second quarter of 2016.
The renewable energy industry‚ which has been concerned about the length of time it has taken Joemat-Pettersson to announce the fourth window‚ was delighted with the news of the expansion of the programme.
The announcement of the bid winners for round four was expected last November and then missed a second deadline of March 31.
Department of Energy acting director-general Wolsey Barnard said the reason for the delay had been the complexities that had arisen when it was decided to expand the bids.
Joemat-Pettersson said that‚ as well as the acceleration of the renewable independent power producers programme‚ her department was designing a procurement programme for gas to power and one for co-generation.
-BDlive, RDM News Wire
