South Africa’s Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is calling for Independent Power Producers to apply for water use authorizations to utilize its water resources, water courses and infrastructure such as rivers and dams, to generate hydropower as an alternative energy to supplement the current electricity available in the grid.
The DWS has initiated the DWS Hydropower Independent Producer Program (DWS HIPP) in an effort to allow for the available infrastructure and water courses to be used to contribute to the power grid with renewable energy.
The Department will hold a hybrid briefing session on April 11 at the Protea Hotel OR Tambo in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, where interested applicants will be taken through the program and application processes.
The government has approved multipronged interventions to address the current energy crisis which has led to loadshedding across the country in order to manage the available energy.
One of the key objectives of the government’s Energy Action Plan was to remove barriers to new generation capacity and unlocking energy from many different sources, including independent power producers in order to add as much energy as possible to the grid.
Linked to this objective is an intervention aimed at enabling and accelerating private investment in generation capacity.
The Department is inviting interested participants to make use of the water resources, watercourses, and infrastructure to generate renewable energy power. The types of hydropower technologies to apply for include Impoundment; river diversion or run-of-river; pumped storage and floating or kinetic turbines (small-scale generating capacity). In addition to the above, applications for floating solar panels can also be made.
A window for applications will be opened on April 17 for interested parties to submit pre- applications for water use authorizations.
Information on the application process is accessible in the Electronic Water Use License and Application and Authorization System (E-WULAAS) on DWS: E-WULAAS – Documents on the department website homepage.