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Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office head Bernard Magoro has signalled that the projects bid during the current seventh renewables procurement bid window could carry a price premium, as bidders adjust to the spatial realities that have arisen as a result of the country's prevailing grid constraints.

Through the bid window, which was launched in December, government is seeking to procure 3 200 MW of onshore wind and 1 800 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity and a bid submission deadline of the end of April has been set.

It is the first bidding round to be hosted following the partial failure of Bid Window Six, when only solar PV projects with a combined capacity of 1 000 MW advanced to a preferred-bidder stage after Eskom indicated there to be no remaining grid-connection capacity for those wind projects that had been vying for a 3 200 MW allocation.

The utility subsequently published a new Generation Connection Capacity Assessment, indicating there to be 19.9 GW of capacity available nationally, but zero remaining capacity in the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape provinces, where the majority of shovel-ready wind and solar projects are located.

Speaking during a Creamer Media webinar, Magoro noted that, of the remaining grid capacity, some 6 GW was in provinces that had hitherto attracted a significant number of IPP bids, including the North West, the Free State and Limpopo.

The residual capacity was located in provinces that had not previously featured prominently in the renewables programme, namely Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

"Obviously, the message to developers is that they need to start moving into those areas to develop their projects.

"We understand that there are projects that are already 'near ready' in some of those provinces, but we must also understand that this will come at a premium for the buyer.

"Based on our previous bid windows, we have seen up to a 30% difference in the tariffs between the Cape region and areas such as Mpumalanga," he reported.

Nordex Energy South Africa MD Compton Saunders, who is also a South African Wind Energy Association board member, also pointed to a possible timing mismatch for wind projects located outside of the three Cape provinces, as these were typically at a less advanced stage of development.

While there was turbine technology available for low-wind areas, Saunders said the main constraint was the time it took to progress a project to a point where it was considered to be bid-ready.

"Unfortunately, many projects that are mature in the Cape provinces are stranded, and it will take a couple of years for the non-constrained grid areas to fully develop projects to maturity."

The physical grid connection, together with the rules governing access to the grid, were also highlighted by Actom's Mamiki Matlawa and MDA Attorney's Vaughan Hattingh as areas for urgent prioritisation and intensified stakeholder engagement.

Matlawa expressed an eagerness for the grid roll-out to be both accelerated and used as a stimulus for the local manufacturing and construction industries.

Hattingh, meanwhile, indicated that the shift to a 'first ready, first serve' approach should help debottleneck the grid-access process. Nevertheless, he suggested that greater attention should also be given to improving the contracting process and ecosystem, which was currently adversarial and not conducive to the type of partnering required to ensure accelerated project delivery.

Energy Council CEO James Mackay said that grid issues, along with a range of other challenges, were receiving high-level attention within the National Energy Crisis Committee that had been set up by President Cyril Ramaphosa to end loadshedding.

"We've never seen a more engaging government and Eskom," Mackay said, noting that Ramaphosa was personally meeting with bu...

A new International Energy Agency (IEA) report on electricity highlights that per person electricity demand across Africa has been stagnant for three decades, making the continent a worrying outlier in electricity demand trends.

As of 2023, 600-million people, or more than 40% of the African population, lacked access to electricity, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

The authors of the 'Electricity 2024' report note that, while electricity use per capita has risen rapidly over the past 30 years in India and Southeast Asia, it has flatlined in Africa, with negative implications for economic development and growth.

"In 1990, the average electricity consumption per person in Africa exceeded that of Southeast Asia by 40% and India by 65%.

"However, recent decades have witnessed a significant surge in electricity demand and supply in India and Southeast Asia, accompanied by rapid economic development and prosperity in these regions," the report states.

Southeast Asia overtook Africa in per capita electricity consumption in 1995, and India achieved the same in 2008 and, by 2023, African consumption of 530 kWh a person was half that of India and 70% lower than in Southeast Asia.

The figure falls to only 190 kWh once South Africa is excluded, but the country is also a key cause of the continent's weak recent demand performance, with record loadshedding last year triggering a 4% year-on-year slump in domestic demand.

Electricity demand in Africa overall increased by 2% in 2023, marginally higher than the year before, and the IEA only expects per capita electricity consumption to recover to 2010-2015 levels by the end of 2026 at the earliest.

"Africa's population is set to grow rapidly, making up one-fifth of the world's population by 2030.

"This highlights the massive potential and need for additional electricity supply in this region," the reports states.

For the period 2024-2026, the IEA is forecasting a 4% average yearly growth in total African electricity demand, which is more than double the mean growth rate observed for the 2015-2023 period.

About 60% of this growth in demand is to be met by expanding renewables, the remaining mostly by natural gas.

Global electricity demand, meanwhile, is also expected to rise at a faster rate over the next three years, growing by an average of 3.4% yearly. Clean sources of generation, mostly renewables but also nuclear, are set to cover all of the world's additional electricity demand over the period.

The IEA argues that the international community needs to work together with African governments to enable urgent progress, describing access to reliable, affordable and sustainable energy as essential if African countries are to achieve their economic and climate goals.

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South African energy company Aqora has rebranded to become Afrivolt, says MD Deshan Naidoo.

The firm's goal, however, remains the same - opening a lithium-ion cell gigafactory in South Africa, able to produce anodes, cathodes and lithium-ion batteries for stationary storage applications and, in the medium term, for electric vehicles (EVs).

Procuring and processing the minerals and metals needed for the factory within Africa has become more of a longer-term plan, adds Naidoo, with cell production moving to the front of the queue.

"It has been difficult to raise capital in this challenging economic environment, so we have been forced to change our strategy and reduce our investment requirements.

"We view the immediate opportunity as cell manufacturing."

Naidoo says the lithium-ion battery cell plant is currently the subject of a due diligence process, with Afrivolt locked in talks with finance institutions to raise the required capital.

Afrivolt enlisted European institutions to conduct the feasibility studies.

"We are contracting various technical partners on the establishment of the plant," says Naidoo.

"We are looking to house the cell factory at the Atlantis Special Economic Zone (SEZ), in Cape Town," he adds, a departure from the initial plans for the Eastern Cape.

"It is the only greentech SEZ in Africa, a positive selling point for our international financiers. It is also easier to attract specialised talent to the Western Cape."

Naidoo explains that the cell plant's focus will be on local customers, as well as clientele in neighbouring countries.

The aim is to mitigate battery imports, create local jobs and stimulate domestic manufacturing opportunities.

Afrivolt aims to start with a 1.5 GWh facility, with the cells made from imported materials, which can then be expanded in a modular fashion to reach the ultimate capacity of 5 GWh.

Naidoo believes that government's EV policy - due out soon - is set to stipulate fiscal support for component manufacturers, which should give the Afrivolt production facility a financial boost.

As for a timeline, Naidoo aims for site work to start during this year.

Naidoo is well known in the automotive industry, where he has been a business leader and member of the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers leadership since 2017.

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Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa reports that government plans to establish an independent transmission project office, located either at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) or the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), to procure new transmission capacity using a build, operate and transfer (BOT) model.

He used his latest briefing on the Energy Action Plan to again emphasise the importance of expanding the country's electricity networks to help end loadshedding, which has been undermining the growth and development of the economy for some 14 years.

Inadequate grid investment is currently constraining the ability of independent power producers (IPPs) to connect new generation projects in the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape provinces, where Eskom has indicated there to be no more connection capacity.

The utility has indicated that it is aiming to unlock some capacity through the introduction of a new curtailment framework and a gated approach to the release of capacity for public and private procurement cycles.

However, neither solution had been finalised by December 14, when the IPP Office released requests for proposals for 5 000 MW of new renewable energy, 2 000 MW of gas to power and 615 MW/2 460 MW of battery storage.

Ramokgopa, thus, forecast that the grid constraint would continue to weigh on current and future procurement programmes unless new powerlines and substations were added at a pace that exceeded the schedule outlined in Eskom's current Transmission Development Plan (TDP).

During the sixth renewables bidding round in 2022, none of the wind projects that bid for a 3 200 MW allocation advanced to preferred bidder stage after Eskom said the grid-connection capacity on which the projects were premised had been fully absorbed.

Under the TDP, only 1 675 km of line is planned for construction by 2027, leaving the lion's share of 14 218 km proposed for construction by 2032 to be implemented in the last five years of the plan's horizon.

Besides it being insufficient to connect new generation, the delayed investment profile has also been heavily criticised by local industry, which has warned that it will be unable to make the manufacturing and skills investments required to participate in the later steep rise in grid expenditure.

"We are looking at this to buttress the work that Eskom is already doing under the TDP," the Minister said, adding that the intention was to inject "aggression" into the implementation of the TDP.

Ramokgopa indicated that he would meet with the new board of the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA) to ensure alignment between it and government on the plan to accelerate grid investment by attracting private finance, contractors and operators into an area currently monopolised by the State-owned utility.

The NTCSA is currently being separated from within Eskom to create a level playing field between IPPs and Eskom and is expected to be operationalised once Eskom has received bondholder consent for its unbundling and its establishment as an independent entity under Eskom Holdings.

The Minister said South Africa's ambitions to attract private investment into the grid had been well received when canvassed recently with potential investors at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as well as with the leaders of European missions in South Africa.

He added that funding could also arise from those governments that were supporting the country's Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, the implementation plan for which was published late last year.

There was, he argued, an "insatiable appetite" within the private sector to support independent transmission projects in South Africa and the focus currently was on finalising a procurement architecture that did not place an additional burden on public fi...

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Cape Town's proposed second big commercial airport, the Cape Winelands Airport (CWA), should receive its first passengers in 2027, says RSA.Aero MD Nick Ferguson.

RSA.Aero is the project developer, with the first phase expected to cost between R5-billion and R7-billion.

Phase 1 will include a 3.5 km runway, taxiways, the terminal building and road infrastructure.

The airport will be located in Durbanville, on the northern outskirts of Cape Town.

CWA's customers are expected to come from Cape Town, as well as the nearby Stellenbosch, Paarl, Wellington and the West Coast.

CWA will be partially built on the site of the current 155 ha Fisantekraal Airport, a private airport handling mainly general aviation.

This facility was built in 1943 by the Allied Forces to protect the South African coastline during World War Two.

The new development will see the site expand to 450 ha in Phase 1, in a northerly direction, and, ultimately, potentially, to the full 884 ha owned by RSA.Aero.

"We'll expand incrementally and in line with demand," Ferguson tells Engineering News Online. "But the aim is to add hotels, cargo facilities, aeroplane maintenance sites, a conference centre and much more."

"People always ask if CWA will be like the privately owned Lanseria, in Johannesburg," he adds.

"The answer is yes, but it will be bigger, with a longer runway that can accommodate wide-body aeroplanes - which means it will be able to handle more international traffic, from more destinations, compared with Lanseria."

RSA.Aero has already started the environmental impact assessment on the project.

Ferguson aims to have this finished by early next year, with construction to start once the project has been given the green light.

Construction will take approximately two years, with the first scheduled traffic set to land in 2027.

Ferguson is upbeat about the airport's potential, as Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) cannot currently accommodate A380s - the world largest commercial passenger aircraft and the largest contingent in the Emirates fleet, for example.

Also: "Johannesburg is mainly a transit hub for most tourists. They land there and immediately fly on to other destinations. If Cape Town is their final destination, then why not fly there directly?"

CTIA is owned and operated by State-owned Airports Company South Africa (ACSA).

Does this not place the privately owned CWA in direct competition with CTIA?

Yes, admits Ferguson, but all major world-class cities have more than one airport.

"Look at London, New York and Sydney - even our neighbour Windhoek has two airports."

While the current Fisantekraal site is licensed as an airport, this licence will have to be expanded for the airport to handle bigger aircraft and more traffic.

It also has to be classified as a designated airport, which will allow it to handle scheduled traffic.

This process is mainly centred around airport security.

"This means that if we achieve the desired milestones, we'll get this licence," says Ferguson.

The more challenging matter will be an application to the national Department of Transport (DoT) for the site be licensed as an international airport.

"This immediately means that the Border Management Authority becomes involved, and if you do not have buy-in here, you'll struggle to clear this hurdle," says Ferguson.

"But, we believe we can show national government the immense value of building the Winelands airport, especially to international carriers and the environment.

"We already have the written support of the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape government."

Ferguson says RSA.Aero is in the process of handing in its international licence application to the DoT.

Heavy Hitters

RSA.Aero is certainly not short on experience and knowledge to succeed in its licence application, as it has some heavy hitters on it...

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Tshwane and eThekwini could see the rollout of 39 electric commuter buses by the end of next year.

The introduction of the zero-emissions vehicles will form part of a pilot project funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), and managed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI).

SANEDI, which has been appointed by DBSA as the implementing agent, says the project will see the procurement of 39 electric buses (e-buses) and the associated charging infrastructure, enabled by the $4.7-million in funding that the bank secured from GEF.

"Our objective with this project is to pave the way for the country to shift to electric mobility in the near future," says SANEDI cleaner mobility programme project manager Tebogo Snyer.

The e-bus project was initiated by DBSA in consultation with a number of municipalities that indicated they were interested to participate.

Conceptualisation started in 2018. Covid-19, however, halted the project.

Work resumed in 2022, and by late last year DBSA managed to secure the necessary funding.

In terms of the project scope, the City of Tshwane will be allocated 20 buses and eThekwini 19.

In both cities electricity infrastructure will be upgraded and charging facilities installed, says SANEDI.

"The project will be implemented over a period of five years, with half the buses being commissioned in the first two years and the rest at a later stage."

"During this time, we will demonstrate the technical, operational, legal, economic and other feasibility factors, and bed down the specifications of the ecosystem needed to support e-buses in South Africa," notes Snyer.

Drivers will also be trained on how to safely operate an e-bus and manage charging cycles.

The first e-buses are expected to be on the road in the next 18 to 24 months.

Snyer says that although the intention is to procure local goods as far as possible, the e-bus "will have to be imported as no local manufacturing capacity exists as yet".

SANEDI indicates that once the project reaches the procurement stage - expected in six to eight months - "an open tender process will follow".

Cleaner Mobility

"Our view is that electric vehicle (EV) technology leads the cleaner mobility field and will continue to do so for the next decade or so," says Snyer.

He expects the technology to revolutionise the transport sector in the next three to five years on the back of improved and cheaper batteries, which will also lower the cost of ownership significantly.

Currently, SANEDI believes the total of cost of ownership is 5% to 10% less than internal combustion buses, however, the much higher upfront price tags on e-buses are limiting adoption.

The main selling points currently are the absence of emissions and the opportunity to have an alternative to pricey imported diesel.

As for the impact of adding EVs to the national grid, Snyer says that switching from internal combustion engines to EVs in significant quantities will add additional load to the power grid, albeit of a different kind.

However, he believes the impact can be managed with smart project planning that ensures e-bus fleets are charged during off-peak periods.

The pilot project's scope includes technical grid-impact analyses.

"We want to prepare South Africa for the future," says Snyer.

"When [e-bus] costs start to come down, local municipalities should be ready to implement the technology that will improve public transport, while also reducing its environmental impact."

* MAN Truck & Bus South Africa aims to start assembly of electric buses at its plant in Durban this year. The company's Lion's Explorer E electric bus is currently being tested by Golden Arrow Bus Services in Cape Town, along with electric buses from China's BYD.

Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses the efforts being made to reinvigorate South Africa's public procurement of new electricity capacity after recent disappointments and amid ongoing loadshedding, as well as the key messages that emerged from bidders’ conferences on the country's new renewables, battery and gas bid windows.

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

While 'location agnostic', South Africa's inaugural 2000 MW gas-to-power (GtP) procurement round is limiting the development of facilities in the City of uMhlathuze, where KwaZulu-Natal's deep-water Port of Richards Bay has been earmarked as a future gas hub, to 1 000 MW - a threshold that will be breached only if the remaining allocation it not taken up elsewhere in the country.

Besides this restriction, the first bid window (BW1) of the Gas Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (GIPPPP) states that facilities can be located anywhere within the borders of South Africa and must be land based.

However, a further 1 000 MW of GtP has also been specifically reserved for deployment in the Eastern Cape's Coega Special Economic Zone, to be procured through a two-phase process that is expected to be launched before the end of March, when a request for qualifications will be published ahead of a request for proposals.

No immediate explanation was provided for the restriction placed on the City of uMhlathuze during GIPPPP BW1. But the decision follows the granting, last year, of a Ministerial determination to Eskom for the construction of a 3 000 MW GtP facility in Richards Bay, which would also require land in close proximity to the port.

Planning is well advanced for the creation of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at the Port of Richards Bay, where volumes will be ramped up progressively over time.

Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) recently selected a consortium comprising Vopak and Transnet Pipelines as the preferred bidder for a 25-year LNG terminal concession in the port's South Dunes precinct.

The terminal is currently scheduled for commissioning between March and June 2027 and bidders within uMhlathuze not making use of the terminal would have to enter into a separate agreement with TNPA for port access for storage and regasificaiton, as would be the case with other projects located in other ports.

IPP Office head Bernard Magoro confirmed during a virtual bidders' conference that the GIPPPP BW1 bid submission date remained August 30 and indicated that preferred bidders would be named following a three- to four-month evaluation phase.

They would then have six months to achieve financial close and 36 months thereafter to progress their projects to commercial operation.

GREENFIELD ONLY

GIPPPP BW1 also limits bidders to the construction of greenfield facilities, ruling out the conversion of the diesel-fuelled Avon and Dedisa open-cycle gas turbines to gas.

Projects can, however, share infrastructure with existing facilities, but such infrastructure must have unconditional and irrevocable rights in the shared infrastructure.

Plants of between 300 MW and 1 000 MW in size will be considered and they will be expected to operate at a maximum load commitment of 65% and a minimum of 40%, with Eskom to dispatch the facility in line with an agreed monthly load commitment.

The facilities, which will sell electricity to Eskom for a period of 20 years, will be compensated for capacity, energy, and ancillary services.

As with the other public procurement programmes under way for renewables and battery storage, a 90/10 evaluation methodology will apply for the GIPPPP, with 90 points for price and 10 points for the economic development aspects.

While economic development components are not a qualifying criteria, compliant projects must include 49% South African entity participation.

Compliant bids also required environmental, water-use and land authorisations, and bidders also need to apply to Eskom by February 29 for grid-connection cost estimate letters.

Bidders are also required to provide detailed term sheets with their natural gas suppliers, detailing the origin of the fuel, the delivery point, as well as confirmation that the supplier has sufficient gas...

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a leading supplier of products, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation.

While 'location agnostic', South Africa's inaugural 2000 MW gas-to-power (GtP) procurement round is limiting the development of facilities in the City of uMhlathuze, where KwaZulu-Natal's deep-water Port of Richards Bay has been earmarked as a future gas hub, to 1 000 MW - a threshold that will be breached only if the remaining allocation it not taken up elsewhere in the country.

Besides this restriction, the first bid window (BW1) of the Gas Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (GIPPPP) states that facilities can be located anywhere within the borders of South Africa and must be land based.

However, a further 1 000 MW of GtP has also been specifically reserved for deployment in the Eastern Cape's Coega Special Economic Zone, to be procured through a two-phase process that is expected to be launched before the end of March, when a request for qualifications will be published ahead of a request for proposals.

No immediate explanation was provided for the restriction placed on the City of uMhlathuze during GIPPPP BW1. But the decision follows the granting, last year, of a Ministerial determination to Eskom for the construction of a 3 000 MW GtP facility in Richards Bay, which would also require land in close proximity to the port.

Planning is well advanced for the creation of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at the Port of Richards Bay, where volumes will be ramped up progressively over time.

Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) recently selected a consortium comprising Vopak and Transnet Pipelines as the preferred bidder for a 25-year LNG terminal concession in the port's South Dunes precinct.

The terminal is currently scheduled for commissioning between March and June 2027 and bidders within uMhlathuze not making use of the terminal would have to enter into a separate agreement with TNPA for port access for storage and regasificaiton, as would be the case with other projects located in other ports.

IPP Office head Bernard Magoro confirmed during a virtual bidders' conference that the GIPPPP BW1 bid submission date remained August 30 and indicated that preferred bidders would be named following a three- to four-month evaluation phase.

They would then have six months to achieve financial close and 36 months thereafter to progress their projects to commercial operation.

GREENFIELD ONLY

GIPPPP BW1 also limits bidders to the construction of greenfield facilities, ruling out the conversion of the diesel-fuelled Avon and Dedisa open-cycle gas turbines to gas.

Projects can, however, share infrastructure with existing facilities, but such infrastructure must have unconditional and irrevocable rights in the shared infrastructure.

Plants of between 300 MW and 1 000 MW in size will be considered and they will be expected to operate at a maximum load commitment of 65% and a minimum of 40%, with Eskom to dispatch the facility in line with an agreed monthly load commitment.

The facilities, which will sell electricity to Eskom for a period of 20 years, will be compensated for capacity, energy, and ancillary services.

As with the other public procurement programmes under way for renewables and battery storage, a 90/10 evaluation methodology will apply for the GIPPPP, with 90 points for price and 10 points for the economic development aspects.

While economic development components are not a qualifying criteria, compliant projects must include 49% South African entity participation.

Compliant bids also required environmental, water-use and land authorisations, and bidders also need to apply to Eskom by February 29 for grid-connection cost estimate letters.

Bidders are also required to provide detailed term sheets with their natural gas suppliers, detailing the origin of the fuel, the delivery point, as well as confirmation that the supplier has sufficient gas...

Independent Power Producer Office head Bernard Magoro reports that work is under way to identify substation sites for the upcoming third Battery Energy Storage Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (BESIPPPP) round while progressing with the second bid window (BW2) for 615 MW/2 460 MWh across eight substation sites.

Speaking during a virtual bidders' conference, Magoro acknowledged questions posed by several prospective bidders about the prospects of securing the necessary environmental authorisations in time for the sites selected for BW2, which were identified only on December 14 when the request for proposals (RFP) was published.

He reported that an effort was being made to ensure that the next set of sites were identified well ahead of the launch of BESIPPPP BW3, the RFP for which could be issued before the end of March.

"For BW3, all things being equal, we want to release the sites sooner rather than later," he said.

For BESIPPPP BW2, meanwhile, Eskom had selected eight transmission substations sites in the North West province for the programme, including Mercury, Carmel, Hermes, Ngwedi, Midas, Marang, Bighorn and Ararat.

Eskom chief engineer for transmission grid planning Caswell Ndlhovu reported that the sites were selected by a multidisciplinary team within the utility using a selection criteria governed by six principles.

These included sites where there was capacity available at all times for discharging and recharging and the provision of ancillary services; sites where losses could be minimised; areas with high system strength; areas with low existing storage concentration; and sites that could help decongest the main corridor into Gauteng for renewable electricity.

Eskom also gave a higher weighting to areas where the renewables generation would arise from solar photovoltaic, owing to the outcome of a study showing that battery storage paired less well with onshore wind from a curtailment perspective.

Using this criteria, the North West province emerged as the frontrunner location and the eight sites were subsequently selected for BESIPPPP BW2.

Under the round, the IPP Office is seeking 77-MW Battery Energy Storage Systems at each substation with four hours storage.

A minimum availability of 95% over 8 760 hours per contracted year is also stipulated and the facilities will be expected to provide instantaneous, regulating and supplementary reserves.

The bidding process is being governed by rules similar to those used during the inaugural BESIPPPP round, besides a stipulation for a minimum South African ownership of 49%, as well as the selection of reserve bidders, which could step in should the preferred bidder fail to achieve financial close within the stipulated timeframe.

A 90-10 evaluation criteria is being used, with 90 points for price and 10 points for the various economic development components, which are not qualifying criteria.

Following the first bidding round in 2023, four preferred bidders were named in late November, with negotiations under way with a fifth.

The four installations are all earmarked for development in the Northern Cape and will have a combined capacity of 360 MW/1 440 MWh, as well as a combined investment value of R10-billion.

The closing date for bid submissions under BW2 is April 30, and Magoro urged prospective bidders to meet the January 31 deadline for the application for grid-connection cost estimate letters from Eskom, which required 90 days to process.