The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has decried being left out of the latest renewables bid window, saying this threatens investor confidence in the sector.
This follows last week’s announcement of preferred bids in the latest renewables procurement round − the sixth bid window (BW6) under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.
SAWEA’s reaction comes as the adoption of renewables has been accelerated due to Eskom’s failure to maintain a steady or sufficient power supply.
The association is one of many organisations that have been calling for an expedited uptake of renewable energy to help stabilise the country’s energy supply.
Last week, mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe announced five solar PV independent power producers as preferred bidders, while all 23 wind projects that were submitted for the bid were set aside.
This solicited a sharp response from SAWEA, saying the exclusion was unwarranted as “government had commitment to accelerate new generation capacity from renewable energy, which was escalated by the doubling of the wind allocation in BW6, from an original 1 600MW to 3 200MW”.
Niveshen Govender, CEO of SAWEA, said: “We agree with Minister Mantashe that investment into the grid infrastructure must be prioritised and accelerated to allow for more new generation capacity.
“However, grid access processes are providing little confidence in articulating how grid capacity is being allocated and we view the announcement as a missed opportunity, given our dire need for electricity in South Africa.
“We strongly urge immediate intervention by key role-players to unpack the challenges with the wind sector and find viable solutions to unlock the hurdles facing the progression toward a secure energy system.”
According to SAWEA, there is a need to be more responsible in managing grid access, with a balanced view between publicly and privately procured electricity.
“A clearly-defined queueing system needs to be urgently implemented,” it says.
SAWEA notes the recently published Generation Connection Capacity Assessment “clearly indicated grid availability in the provinces where wind projects were developed for public procurement. Project developers need clear communication in real-time of changes to reduce risks in an already costly process.”
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