South Africa’s Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said the country would try to acquire the funds from independent power producers (IPPs) to build a 400 MW wind power station within the next three years.
Peters also announced that the role and responsibilities of Eskom’s roll in the future energy mix would be discussed in the upcoming weeks. IPPs have complained that Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned utility, had been designated as the single buyer hindering market growth.
In March, Eskom extended its postponement of the release of a request for proposals for its base-load IPP program, saying that it required greater certainty on the regulatory framework before it could proceed. Its cogeneration programs had also stalled, reportedly for the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to finalize its power purchase cost recovery guidelines.