The department of mineral resources and energy has extended the bid submission date for the seventh round of the renewable energy independent power producer procurement programme (REIPPPP).
Bid window 7, launched in December, seeks to procure 5,000MW of new generation capacity, which includes 1,800MW of solar and 3,200MW of onshore wind power.
The deadline for bid submissions has been extended from April 30 to May 30.
“This was approved, taking into consideration the timelines indicated by Eskom for the processing of cost estimate letter applications, as well as requests from bidders to allow more time for the preparation of their bid responses,” the department of mineral resources and energy said.
Eskom published an addendum to its 2025 Generation Connection Capacity Assessment (GCCA) in January, which outlined how introducing a 10% curtailment measure would allow for 3,470MW of new wind power projects to be connected to the grid.
The GCCA that was published in 2023 indicated that parts of the transmission network in the most favourable areas for wind generation, such as the Eastern Cape and Western Cape, had no capacity as all of the capacity was depleted from previous bid window rounds and private off-takers, according to Eskom.
These grid constraints resulted in no new wind power projects being selected for development under bid window 6 of the REIPPPP.
However, the curtailment framework set out in the addendum stated that if project developers accepted a “reasonable share” of no more than 10% curtailment, 3,470MW (equal to more than three stages of load-shedding) of additional wind generation capacity could be connected to the grid in those provinces.
Curtailment — reducing output from a renewable energy plant below what it could produce to respond to transmission capacity constraints — would provide developers with an alternative if they still chose to connect in constrained grid areas.
That opened the doors for wind energy projects to be located in the Cape provinces to submit bids under window 7 of the REIPPPP.
The department also announced last week that it had extended the bid submission date for the second round of the battery energy storage procurement programme from April 30 to June 6. The second round seeks to procure 615MW of storage capacity from eight facilities near certain Eskom transmission substations in the Northwest Supply Area.
The department has also launched the third round of battery energy storage procurement.
The newly launched bid window 3 will aim to procure 616MW of storage capacity to be located at five substations in the Free State.
The bid submission date is July 31.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.