Cape Town - Minister of Energy Tina Joemat-Pettersson said on Thursday her department wants to see more South Africans capitalising on the Independent Power Producers (IPP) Procurement Programme in a bid to help the country overcome energy shortages.
She told a media briefing on the renewable IPP programme that she will ask energy regulator Nersa to add a further 6 300 MW to the programme.
The briefing comes amid continued load shedding as Eskom struggles to meet demand due to a shortage of generation capacity, with several units currently out of service due to planned and unplanned outages.
She said a total of 29 bids with 139 MW have been received so far.
She said the renewable IPP programme is a flagship and so far 4 322 MW has been procured in less than four years.
On April 11, the Department of Energy issued 13 preferred bidders for the full submission of the next phase.
“Once completed they will produce another 1 121 MW to the national grid. This brings the amount of IPPs to 79 with a total of 5 243 MW across all renewable windows.
“This is a R168bn investment in economic infrastructure in SA.”
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