South Africa to release CoGen IPP bid documents this week

1st June 2015 By: Terence Creamer - Creamer Media Editor

South Africa to release CoGen IPP bid documents this week

Photo by: Duane Daws

The Department of Energy (DoE) has issued a notice of a request for bids (RFB) under the recently announced cogeneration (CoGen) independent power producer (IPP) procurement programme.

The RFB documentation will be available from 17:00 on June 4, which prospective bidders can obtain on paying a nonrefundable fee of R14 500 for each prospective project. Bidders will also need to complete an online bid submission notification form, to be found on the www.ipp-cogen.co.za website.

Under the CoGen process, government’s IPP Office will consider combined heat and power (CHP) generation projects, as well as waste-to-energy and industrial biomass developments.

But while different technologies will be considered, the common characteristics will be that the fuel or energy source originates from an underlying industrial process and that the cogeneration is coupled to the industrial process of a host plant.

For the waste-to-energy technologies the fuel needs to be a by-product of an industrial process and for the CHP technologies the fuel source should be used to generate steam and electricity simultaneously, with the steam being eventually used in the industrial process.

The primary-energy source that will be considered for the CHP includes coal, waste or discard coal, natural gas and liquid fuels. However, waste or discard coal will not be considered for waste-to-energy projects, which should be based on waste heat, process furnace off-gas, or other nonrenewable energy waste emitted from industrial processes.

The industrial biomass category embraces sugar bagasse, field trash and other sugar-related wastes associated with the host facility process; forest-product mill wastes, including chips, saw dust, shavings, soaps, methanol, sludges, bark and black liquor; as well as other agricultural or forestry residue, including alien vegetation clearing.

The RFB notice does not indicate an allocation between the technologies, nor does it stipulate a bidding closing date.

Under already published determinations, the DoE is in a position to procure 800 MW of cogeneration capacity from IPPs. However, Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has indicated that the bidding process would be for  1 800 MW and that she was seeking concurrence from the energy regulator to increase the size of the determination.

She also indicated that the bidding process would be pursued under a revised model in an effort to “expedite the approval process and financial close”.