Blue Horizon

South Africa’s Covid-19 lockdown began in March of this year & led to a decrease in demand of ~9GW and economic activity as many businesses closed. Prior to the coronavirus lockdown, South Africa’s government solicited public comment on a couple Ministerial Determinations to procure about 14 GW of new generation by 2027 in accordance with the IRP including a mix of renewables, gas, storage, and coal. The details for the potential procurement and proposal deadlines have yet to be made publicly available but Round 5 may be grouped together with this larger procurement process. At least 2 GW will likely come from distributed generation, biogas, and potentially cogeneration as part of an expedited round to meet the near-term supply gap resulting in loadshedding.

The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy (MMRE), Gwede Mantashe, has yet to begin or commit to a detailed timeline for Round 5 of the REIPPPP, however the latest Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) allocates 1GW to solar PV and 1.6GW to wind that will need to come online in 2022. To meet this deadline the government would need to start the procurement process for Round 5 very soon.

In a recent article with GreenTech Media, Chris Ahlfeldt, provides his views on how green energy and restarting renewable energy procurement once its safe to do so will help with economic recovery, meet IRP goals, reduce pollution, & help avoid more loadshedding as businesses reopen.