By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has approved generation licences for five preferred bidders of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme Bid Window (BW) 6.
The five preferred bidders were approved for the department’s Bid Window 6 at the regulator’s 29 June meeting.
“The five preferred bidders applied for generation licences in accordance with section 7 of the Electricity Regulation Act, 2006 (Act No.4 of 2006), which requires that no person may operate a generation facility without a licence issued by the Energy Regulator.
“NERSA analysed the applications and determined that they meet all the licensing requirements. No objections to the applications were received,” the Energy Regulator said in a statement on Friday.
The preffered bidders are: Doornhoek PV (Pty) Ltd; Boitumelo Solar Power Plant (RF) (Pty) Ltd; Kutlwano Solar Power Plant (RF) (Pty) Ltd; URSA Energy (RF) (Pty) Ltd and Antlia Energy (RF) (Pty) Ltd.
The sixth round of the REIPPPP Bid Window 6 is the second bid window to be procured in response to the Second Ministerial Determination.
The Bid Window called for new generation capacity of 4 200MW, made up of 3200 MW wind energy resources and 1000 MW Solar Photovoltaic energy resources.
The detailed Decision and Reasons for the Decision documents regarding the above decisions will be available on the NERSA website (www.nersa.org.za) in due course.