By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minister of Energy and Electricity Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has announced 7 prequalified bidders for the Independent Transmission Infrastructure Procurement Programme.
Ramakgopa confirmed that all of the prequalified consortia are led by international companies that were able to prove prior experience in building such projects elsewhere.
Such experience was a criteria included in the request for qualification (RfQ) documentation, which has been criticised for excluding local companies.
Ramokgopa promised, however, that subsequent ITP procurement phases would include majority South African project owners, while South African and black empowerment equity participation was still a qualifying criteria for the inaugural bid window.
Efforts would also be made to ensure local content even during the first phase in line with localisation designations approved by the South African government, as well as to ensure the participation of local construction, operations and maintenance companies.
No clarity was provided as to what legal framework would be used to enforce the designations, however it was also confirmed that price would be the main evaluation criteria.
Ramokgopa insisted that South African participation would be progressively increased in subsequent phases, as government had identified the multidecade grid roll-out as a major industrialisation opportunity for the country.
The seven pre-qualified bidders are:
1.Adani Power Middle East Ltd-Momentous Energy Consortium, led by India’s Adani Power;
2.AREF Cobra Transmission, led by Spain’s Grupo Cobra;
3.Consortium Pulse Infrastructure, led by Spain’s Celeo Redes;
4.EITP Consortium, led by Okavango Projects;
5.State Grid Consortium, led by China’s State Grid International Development;
6.Transmission Africa Consortium, led by China Southern Power Grid International;
and 7.The Hyperion Consortium, led by EDF EN South Africa, a joint venture between France and South Africa.
He said more than 800 megawatts (MW) of new generation capacity had been added to the grid by December 2025, mainly from solar photovoltaic projects.
“These projects have reached commercial operation and are giving us megawatts on the grid as we speak,” he said.
Government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) continues to attract strong interest from investors. Bid Window 7 attracted 48 bids offering more than 10 000MW, double the 5,000MW originally requested.
“That oversubscription shows confidence in the programme,” Ramokgopa said.
Preferred bidders under programme are expected to add about 890MW, representing an investment of about R16 billion. At least 49% of shareholding must be South African, with 40% black ownership.