South Africa kicks off 616-MW battery storage RfP

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 and 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 for BESS capacity to be connected to five substations run by national power grid operator Eskom. All of these sites, namely Harvard, Leander, Theseus, Everest, and Merapi, are located in the Free State Province.

Applications will be accepted 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 developer of the project that is now owned by independent power producer Globeleq. The scheme, the total cost of which amounts to ZAR 6.43 billion (USD 343.8m/EUR 317.6m), envisages the installation of 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, anticipating building works to take 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.

Additionally, 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) have been extended to June 6 and May 30, respectively.

(ZAR 10 = USD 0.535/EUR 0.494)

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