Promethium Carbon has launched their Independent Power Producers Guideline, together with the Electricity Market Reform in Southern Africa Report.
“The aim of the Guideline is to assist prospective independent power producers (IPPs) navigate through the procedures that are required to license new electricity generation facilities within Southern Africa,” said Promethium Carbon director, Robbie Louw.
The Guideline outlines the background policies and regulatory processes for IPPs to obtain generation licences within the following countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The guide was informed by interviews with relevant government departments, energy regulators, industry associations, independent power producers, available legislation and published literature. The guide forms part of a project funded by the British High Commission.
Peter Boxer, Deputy British High Commissioner, said the UK is proud to be a leading advocate for renewable energy in Africa. “We trust these new resources will help attract increased investment and support the region’s prosperity.”
“The Guideline is complemented by the Electricity Market Reform in Southern Africa Report, which provides a bigger picture to the emerging opportunities for independent power producers,” Mr Louw said. “It contains a review of the development of international energy markets and identifies the structures and mechanisms used to transform the electricity markets in developed countries over the last couple of decades.”
“The appropriateness of these structures to the Southern African region has been considered during this project. The required steps for reforming the region’s markets within the existing regulatory frameworks were then proposed. Case studies, including wheeling of electricity, own generation, embedded generation and market aggregators, are used to demonstrate that the essential elements needed for market transformation are in place within the current frameworks within the region. These elements also create a more competitive environment within the electricity supply industry,” he said.
Mr Louw concluded that the growth in demand and need for new capacity provides sufficient opportunities for the private sector to participate in transforming the energy sector. “Cost reflective tariffs are essential to create an economically viable environment for new generators. The unbundling of generation from transmission and distribution at a financial level (in alignment with cost reflective tariffs) will also enable a competitive and fair market for IPPs,” he said.