SA extends deadline for emergency power deals
Companies now have until end-January to finalise projects amid environmental and legal challenges
SA has extended by four months a deadline for companies to reach financial close for projects to add emergency generation capacity as the country seeks to end nationwide blackouts, according to people familiar with the situation.
The financial close for such projects was due on Thursday, but environmental challenges and a lawsuit filed by a losing bidder has stymied companies seeking bank endorsements for their plans.
Companies now have until the end of January, the people said, asking not to be identified before a public announcement. The department of mineral resources & energy wasn’t immediately able for comment when called.
The Risk Mitigation Independent Power Procurement Programme, designed to add generation capacity as quickly as possible to curtail outages, awarded deals to supply almost 2,000 megawatts of electricity to preferred bidders in March.
Karpowership, a Turkish supplier of ship-mounted gas-power plants, won the bulk of the tender. The rest were dominated by solar power and included groups in which Scatec, Electricite de France and TotalEnergies hold stakes.
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