Media Statement 14 November 2011

Thandiwe Maimane

Department of Energy

Pretoria, 14 November 2011. The Department of Energy published an Request For Proposals (RFP) on the 3rd of August 2011 requesting Independent Power Producers to submit proposals for the first window by the 4th of November 2011. All bidders intending to bid for the first and the second window were required to attend a compulsory Bidders Conference held on the 14th of September 2011.

The conference was compulsory for all bidders intending to submit their bids on the first and the second window as per the provisions of the RFP. Most bidders were aiming for the first window but some were not ready given the readiness criteria outlined on the RFP.

In accordance with the provisions of the RFP, all bidders intending to submit for the first window were requested to submit their bids as from the 3rd August whilst the closing date was 12h00, 04th November 2011. The Department received approximately 53 bids cutting all the different technologies. It appears also that the projects on offer cut across all the different provinces, with major beneficiary provinces are the Northern Cape, Western Cape and, Eastern Cape.

Bids received cover different technologies as per the determination by the Minister but wind and solar take the lead. It was expected that wind and solar will dominate the bids given the South African environment. Note that even the determination gave wind and solar more MW allocation compared to the other technologies.

It is too early to share all the information contained in the bids or the evaluation outcome but we can indicate that we have different teams looking at different aspects of the bids. The teams are divided into legal, financial, technical and economic development. Each and every aspect of each bid is receiving special attention. As you may be aware, the scoring is divided into 70% price and 30% economic development as per the exemption from the PPPFA.
With regards to the 30% for economic development, bidders are required to comply with different minimum thresholds per technology for BEE ownership, job creation, local content and socio-economic development.

The Department is using transactional advisers to assist with the evaluation of the bids and we all are working hard to ensure that the evaluation is finalised on time for the announcement of the preferred bidders before the end of this year.

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Media Enquiries:
Thandiwe Maimane
Tel: 012 444 4335; Cell: 083 645 7837;
Email: thandiwe.maimane@energy .gov.za