Emergency Power Programme Preferred Bidders will be announced today

Spizz

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MEDIA ADVISORY

MINISTER MANTASHE TO BRIEF THE MEDIA ON LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ENERGY SECTOR

The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Mr Gwede Mantashe will on Thursday, 18 March 2021, brief members of the media on the latest developments in the Energy Sector.

Minister Mantashe is expected to announce the preferred bidders for the procurement of the 2000 MW Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Programme (RMIPPP) and provide further details on the procurement of additional power in line with the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 (IRP2019).

Members of the media are invited to cover the briefing scheduled as follows :
Date: Thursday, 18 March 2021
Time: 16 :00
Venue: GCIS – Ronnie Mamoepa Press Room, Tshedimosetso House, 1035 Francis Baard Street, Hatfield in Pretoria
For media enquiries:
 

Spizz

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I've been working on this for 9 months and am fully expecting the Turkish power ships to get the nod instead.
 

Paul Hjul

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Considering that there is a shortage of supply and no shortage of transmission capacity (yet, we'll get there sooner than is ideal) surely there is no room for "preferred" bidders?

The way I see it anybody delivery consistent SLA guaranteed (with monster penalties) megawatt hours (so the SLA stipulates what wattage during what time and you must be supplying hundreds of megawatt hours) onto a connection point is paid whatever per megawatt hour.
 

Johnatan56

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Considering that there is a shortage of supply and no shortage of transmission capacity (yet, we'll get there sooner than is ideal) surely there is no room for "preferred" bidders?

The way I see it anybody delivery consistent SLA guaranteed (with monster penalties) megawatt hours (so the SLA stipulates what wattage during what time and you must be supplying hundreds of megawatt hours) onto a connection point is paid whatever per megawatt hour.
In terms of transmission, you'll generally still need to hook it up, so still need grid build.
PE side there were issues with not enough transmission for peak power delivery from wind farms, not sure if they've sorted that out yet.
 

Paul Hjul

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In terms of transmission, you'll generally still need to hook it up, so still need grid build.
PE side there were issues with not enough transmission for peak power delivery from wind farms, not sure if they've sorted that out yet.
The wind farm situation has some additional facepalm moments. By PE you mean Port Elizabeth - so really the Jbay windfarms.
This is a prime example of where fundamental ineptitude is an absolute nightmare. What you have is a situation where through the IPP processes windfarms have been approved and are built. Eskom is desperate for the Thyspunt monstrosity and have bundled a new transmission line into getting Thyspunt

As a result there is roughly 6 times the peak generating capability in the area than represents the transmission line from PE to Kruisfontein, at peak production the area uses about a 6th of the production and another 6th is carried by Eskom transmission to George. South Africa can avoid loadshedding during peak by simply getting the transmission from here to Port Elizabeth sorted out. Of course peak production isn't baseline transmission but here the situation gets worse rather than better. The Kouga Dam is a hydroelectric pump storage that hasn't been maintained (and that goes back to the Nats) but its also empty. Assuming you regard the drought as a bigger issue the question of desalinization arises. And frankly you can do pump storage with sea water (the engineering and dealing with corrosion is more nuanced).

O and the wind generators are financed and more cost effective than coal even with really only a third of the peak generating capability in use. So they could quite comfortably be put towards desalination to fill a pump storage system giving better reserves and making a small dent on the
drought ...

But building a desalination plant that feeds a reserve baseload mini hydro electric unit and shifting the transmission infrastructure in Kouga all makes Thyspunt a dead on arrival project. South Africa has loadshedding because Eskom wishes to have a land and coal grab - Brian Molefe is largely admitting as much. While there may be a place for nuclear energy in the mix in the South African landscape nuclear is patently correct and fueled by greed and an ulterior motive - which also means it isn't safe.

So when I say a connection point, I chose the term because while the transmission network is largely functional it isn't well aligned. At the moment the IPPs get to tell Eskom transmission where to install, it should be the other way around for getting out of loadshedding.
Quite frankly even if not prime wind and solar spots the opportunities to put renewables in Mpumalanga should not be ignored and adopting a mindset of decommissioning old coal plants and replacing them with an on site battery (especially forms of dumb battery - like compressed air battery mechanisms) or renewables should be discounted.

- disclaimer the fight to get the transmission lines regardless of Thyspunt is a fight from some years back:

I take great pride in being a spanner in the works to the Thyspunt land grab but am quite disappointed that we weren't able to force the transmission infrastructure to come on stream.
 

Spizz

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Considering that there is a shortage of supply and no shortage of transmission capacity (yet, we'll get there sooner than is ideal) surely there is no room for "preferred" bidders?

The way I see it anybody delivery consistent SLA guaranteed (with monster penalties) megawatt hours (so the SLA stipulates what wattage during what time and you must be supplying hundreds of megawatt hours) onto a connection point is paid whatever per megawatt hour.

The RMIPPPP is an emergency programme set up by the government to deliver 2GW of power to SA asap. There have been 28 tenders of various types from powerships to LPG to LNG to PV to wind or whatever else is not important. The important part is that the preferred bidders who will be announced today have their operation up and running and pumping 2GW into the grid by the end of next year.

The "preferred bidders" who will be announced today are in fact the "winners" who will provide the 2GW required out of the 5GW total they received in tenders. So out of the 28 bidders, possibly 9 or 10 projects totaling 2GW will get the nod today.

Further explanation and the list of the bidders are listed here...

 

Paul Hjul

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considering the need surely the full fucking 5GW should be approved provided the tendered capacity can be put onto the grid and isn't dodgy or cutting of environmental or like regulations
 

Johnatan56

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considering the need surely the full fucking 5GW should be approved provided the tendered capacity can be put onto the grid and isn't dodgy or cutting of environmental or like regulations
And is cost effective*
 

Lara

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The RMIPPPP is an emergency programme set up by the government to deliver 2GW of power to SA asap. There have been 28 tenders of various types from powerships to LPG to LNG to PV to wind or whatever else is not important. The important part is that the preferred bidders who will be announced today have their operation up and running and pumping 2GW into the grid by the end of next year.

The "preferred bidders" who will be announced today are in fact the "winners" who will provide the 2GW required out of the 5GW total they received in tenders. So out of the 28 bidders, possibly 9 or 10 projects totaling 2GW will get the nod today.

Further explanation and the list of the bidders are listed here...

Who are Elephant and Umoyilanga Energy and why are they incorporated? :unsure:
 

Paul Hjul

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And is cost effective*
Well my take is that if the price is set and the provider fucks up their costs that's their problem.

But this is the heart of the problem cost isn't properly factored and the room for pilfering is too high.

Listening to Gwede on the Nuus I heard Kouga get mentioned at least twice, this has me concerned...
 

Spizz

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Who are Elephant and Umoyilanga Energy and why are they incorporated? :unsure:

Different energy companies. Umoyilanga is one of the 8 “winners” that were announced today, Elephant not.

Remember these are all independent power providers. They are privately owned companies who build a power plant and then sell the electricity to the government.
 

Spizz

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Well my take is that if the price is set and the provider fucks up their costs that's their problem.

But this is the heart of the problem cost isn't properly factored and the room for pilfering is too high.

Listening to Gwede on the Nuus I heard Kouga get mentioned at least twice, this has me concerned...

Other side of PE. Coega
 

Paul Hjul

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@Spizz

Any idea as to how big (in terms of volume) a reservoir is needed for a pump storage hydroplant (using sea water) to be able to deliver 200MW for 4 hours
Basically reservoir at top of mountain, some turbines reservoir at bottom of mountain, canal through which the water runs driving the turbines and pump up of water to top of mountain. You time to "recharge" by pumping up water is say 12 hours and the efficiency of this battery doesn't need to be more than 60%

Or more importantly what construction and plant costs (assuming the land acquisition is negligible) would we be looking at.
 

Paul Hjul

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Were you bidding? Did you get in?

If I understand it correctly his proposed plant at Witbank that entailed sacrificing local drunks to the boiler was rejected.
But the company he works for has components work in this and are chuffed enough with the outcome.
 

Spizz

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Were you bidding? Did you get in?
If I understand it correctly his proposed plant at Witbank that entailed sacrificing local drunks to the boiler was rejected.
But the company he works for has components work in this and are chuffed enough with the outcome.

Indeed. The powerships aside, we are involved heavily in all 5 of the others.
 

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@Spizz

Any idea as to how big (in terms of volume) a reservoir is needed for a pump storage hydroplant (using sea water) to be able to deliver 200MW for 4 hours
Basically reservoir at top of mountain, some turbines reservoir at bottom of mountain, canal through which the water runs driving the turbines and pump up of water to top of mountain. You time to "recharge" by pumping up water is say 12 hours and the efficiency of this battery doesn't need to be more than 60%

Or more importantly what construction and plant costs (assuming the land acquisition is negligible) would we be looking at.

Ffestiniog Power Station uses 170,000 m3 of water to supply 360MW for around 4 hours.

 

Lara

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Different energy companies. Umoyilanga is one of the 8 “winners” that were announced today, Elephant not.

Remember these are all independent power providers. They are privately owned companies who build a power plant and then sell the electricity to the government.
A Google search did not reveal much about them. I hope they are capable of doing the job properly. :)
 
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