- DMRE announced that South Africa-based AGV Projects Pty Ltd secured the fifth and last project in the tender programme’s BESS IPPPP Bid Window 1.
- DMRE extended the submission deadlines for the second bidding window of BESIPPPP and the 7th bidding window of the REIPPPP to June 6 and May 30, respectively.
South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resource and Energy (DMRE) this week opened a tender for 616 MW/2,464 MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity. It announced another winner from a previous call of the same bidding programme.
In a request for proposals (RFP) under the third bidding window of the country’s Battery Energy Storage Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (BESIPPPP), the government will await proposals to connect BESS capacity to five substations run by the national power grid operator Eskom.
These sites, namely Harvard, Leander, Theseus, Everest, and Merapi, are in the Free State Province. They will accept applications by July 31, 2024.
DMRE has also announced that South Africa-based AGV Projects Pty Ltd has secured the fifth and last project in the tender programme’s BESIPPPP Bid Window 1. The company is the project’s developer, which independent power producer Globeleq now owns.
The scheme, which has a total cost of ZAR 6.43 billion (USD 343.8m/EUR 317.6m), envisages installing 153 MW/612 MWh of storage capacity through the Red Sands BESS project at the Garona substation.
According to Globeleq, this will be the largest standalone battery in Africa. It expects to reach financial closing later this year and anticipates building works taking 24 months. BESIPPPP BW 1 was launched in March 2023 and sought to award 513 MW of BESS projects with five pre-selected grid-connection points in Northern Cape Province.
In addition, they have extended the submission deadlines for the second bidding window of BESIPPPP and the seventh bidding window of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) to June 6 and May 30, respectively.