The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) on Monday said it “welcomes” the high court decision dismissing with costs the DNG Power Holdings (Pty) Ltd application to set aside the appointment of Preferred Bidders.
These bidders were appointed under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP), which is made up of 11 projects totalling 1 996MW.
About 60% of the total amount is made up of three floating power plants (or power ships) and associated floating storage and regasification units from Turkish company Karpowership.
A power ship is a special-purpose ship, on which a power plant is installed to serve as a power generation resource.
Eight projects, ranging from 75MW to 200MW, incorporating various combinations of wind, solar photovoltaic (PV), battery energy storage, and diesel/gas engines complete the list.
DNG Power Holdings had challenged in court the bidding processes alleging that corruption involving government officials had led to Turkeys Karpowership winning the bulk of the emergency power contract.
On Monday, the DMRE said the high court ruling confirms that the RMIPPPP procurement was conducted under applicable legislation, including section 217 of the constitution, which is based on a fair, equitable, transparent, competitive, and cost-effective process.
The DMRE said the court decision enables the government and Eskom to finalise its governance and regulatory approval processes to conclude financial close with RMIPPPP Preferred Bidders by end of March 2022.
“It is expected that these projects will be operational and ready to deliver much-needed generation capacity to the national grid starting 12 months from financial close,” said the DMRE.
