South Africa to develop 3 power ships to tackle power crisis

The government of South Africa has announce plans to tackle electricity crisis in the country through developing three offshore power ships, greater use of solar and wind energy, and other renewable energy (RE) investments.

Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe made the announcement and said that they are in the process of revealing eight chosen bidders in the government’s emergency risk mitigation program, which will facilitate independent power suppliers to supply the electricity produced by the sole national supplier, Eskom.

Gwede Mantashe declared that the vendors were selected based on the bidding process which began in August last year. additionally, as part of the emergency plan, a subsidiary of Turkish company Karadeniz, Karpowership SA will anchor three mega-ships that produce electricity from gas at the industrial hubs of Coega, Richards Bay, and Saldanha.

Read:Oya Energy hybrid facility selected as RMIPPPP bidder in South Africa

Entity participation

“The solutions provided by these preferred bidders are from a combination of technologies that include solar, wind, liquified natural gas, and battery storage. These eight projects will inject a total private sector investment of US $3.08bn into the South African economy, with an average local content of 50% during the construction period,” said Mantashe.

“South African entity participation from these projects is 51% with black ownership at 41%. About 3,800 job opportunities would be created during the 18-month construction period and a further 13,500 during the 20-year Power Purchase Agreement term. Energy security of supply is the backbone of any economy. It acts as a stimulant and catalyst to economic growth and development. Our country has become accustomed to an intermittent electricity supply. Along with that the continued rising price structure — both these factors have an adverse impact on the ability of the economic sectors to deliver optimal production as well as the ability of the citizens to access electricity for household use,” the minister added.

Mr. Mantashe also announced another round of ‘Request for Proposal’ for the procurement of 2,600 megawatts of renewable energy, which will close on August 4 this year.

“The government intend to release four more ‘Requests for Proposals’ within the next 12 months. These will include 2,600MW from renewable energy, 3 000MW from gas, 1,500MW from coal, and 513MW from battery storage.”