South Africa misses deadline for renewables Program

According to local sources, the announcement of the preferred bidders for the fourth bid window of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) has been delayed.

The announcement was scheduled for Monday November 24th.

Round - four renewables bidders had submitted project bids on August 18

The delay comes after financial close for the 17 third bid window preferred projects was moved, owing primarily to grid connection problems. The projects were initially scheduled to close on July 30.

Local sources said that the bidders have been requested to extend the validity of their bids to March.

Local public utility Eskom has had serious grid constraints, which have become a major impediment to the connection of some of the round-three projects.

There was also no announcement yet regarding the results of the Concentrated Solar Power-only bid window, for which bids were submitted on March 31, 2014.