By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe has signed new project agreements with an additional two preferred bidders appointed under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP).
The projects which have a combined investment value of R14.6-billion, are the 128 MW Oya Energy Hybrid Facility, proposed for development in Matjiesfontein, which straddles the Northern and Western Cape provinces, and the 75 MW Umoyilanga Energy, across two sites at Avondale in the Northern Cape, and Dassiesridge in the Eastern Cape.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) said in a statement that the Oya project would be developed by G7 Renewable Energies, ENGIE, Meadows Oya Energy and Perpetua RMI4P, while the Umoyilanga project was being developed by EDF Renewables and Perpetua Holdings.
Both are hybrid renewable projects that include a combination of solar photovoltaic (PV), onshore wind and battery storage technologies that will meet the programme’s production profile of being able to dispatch electricity between 5:00 in the morning and 21:30 at night.
Should the projects progress to financial close, they will join three Scatec projects, which are the only RMIPPPP projects to have entered construction to date. The Scatec projects involve 540 MW of solar PV, coupled with lithium-ion batteries with a capacity of 225 MW/1 140 MWh to produce 150 MW of dispatchable electricity.
Despite the delays, the programme has remained active and Karpowership, which secured 1 200 MW of the RMIPPPP’s 2 000 MW allocation across three projects, has expressed optimism that its projects could also close soon.
This brings the total number of Projects that have signed agreements under the RMIPPPP to five out of the eleven Preferred Bidders appointed, adding a total of 353MW of dispatchable capacity to the national grid.
The first three RMIPPPP Projects that signed agreements in June 2022 are currently in construction and are set to reach commercial operation in November 2023.
The total investment attracted from the projects that have signed agreements today is R14.6 billion, which is a substantial input to the economy, the department said.
The projects will contribute a total of 3,966 job opportunities in the construction and operation of these power plants and will also contribute over R610 million over their 20-year lifetime on Skills Development, Supplier Development, Enterprise Development, and Socio-Economic Development initiatives in the communities within which they operate.