IPPs are ready and able to help plug power shortfall

Nom Chompsky

Nom Chompsky

High Tory
Joined
Mar 6, 2004
Messages
54,583
Reaction score
39,432
Location
Cape Town
As load-shedding grips the country yet again, independent power producers (IPPs) say they are ready and able to step into the breach and provide surplus electricity quickly and cheaply.

Their comments at an information session on Wednesday are in response to the government’s call for the independent power industry to detail if it has the capability to urgently provide 3,000MW, or 7.5%, of SA’s generation capacity, to plug Eskom’s supply shortfall.

The industry has invested nearly R210bn to generate green power that it sells to the state-owned power utility.

The energy department’s Independent Power Producers (IPP) Office aims to tie up the request for information by the end of February, which might be too late for an economy struggling to grow amid rolling power cuts as Eskom struggles to keep the lights on.

Speaking from the crowd at the session on the Request for Information (RFI), hosted by the IPP office on Wednesday, CEO of the Kathu Solar Park, Cedric Faye, said his company’s 100MW Northern Cape project was already producing additional megawatts and could quickly and cheaply feed these into the national power system.

He asked if it was possible to amend the power purchase agreement, as they could produce more.
This would also avoid all the time taken by RFIs and request for proposal (RFP) discussions.

Faye’s sentiments were echoed by the wind industry, which is proposing that existing power supply restrictions be lifted on all operating wind farms in order to unlock 500MW of extra capacity that is immediately available.

If the restrictions were lifted, the government could buy surplus energy from these plants for as low as 40c/kWh, the SA Wind Energy Association said.
Eskom sells power at an average price of 90c/kWh, but says that this tariff is not cost reflective.
Click to expand...

www.businesslive.co.za

IPPs are ready and able to help plug power shortfall

Independent power producers say they can ease SA's power blackouts with surplus electricity quickly and cheaply
www.businesslive.co.za www.businesslive.co.za
 
make it happen, where is the sense of urgency
 
The most I see is them offering 800MW. Sure they should be allowed to supply as much as they produce but they still would get nowhere close to the 3000 needed nor Eskom's over 10000MW they seem to always have offline due to breakdowns. And solar isn't reliable as baseload.
 
R13... said:
The most I see is them offering 800MW. Sure they should be allowed to supply as much as they produce but they still would get nowhere close to the 3000 needed nor Eskom's over 10000MW they seem to always have offline due to breakdowns. And solar isn't reliable as baseload.
Click to expand...
The solar still helps with recharging the pumped storage (or saving them having to use it)
 
R13... said:
The most I see is them offering 800MW. Sure they should be allowed to supply as much as they produce but they still would get nowhere close to the 3000 needed nor Eskom's over 10000MW they seem to always have offline due to breakdowns. And solar isn't reliable as baseload.
Click to expand...
There is additional capacity coming online, which can produce up to 2GW depending on conditions, in 2023. I heard a radio interview last December where someone said up to 3GW could be made available from those facilities if the IPP agreements had less red tape.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X