As South Africa races against the clock to fill an electricity supply gap of some 2,000 MW between 2019 and 2022, gas-to-power projects will play a significant role.
According to Nicola Rump, a principal environmental scientist at SRK Consulting, government's recently launched risk mitigation independent power producer procurement programme (RMIPPPP) has stirred the interest of a number of private players in the gas-to-power sector.
Nicola further asserted that "while the longer-established renewable energy independent power producer procurement programme (REIPPPP) is delivering considerable results in solar and wind energy generation, we are now open to seeing an exciting start in exploring the potential of gas in South Africa's energy mix."
She noted that the field of gas-fired generation in the country had previously seen little activity from private developers. This was now changing fast, as the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy prepares to begin evaluating RMIPPPP project bids by the end of 2020. With South Africa’s power system being so constrained, government is wanting these projects to start feeding the national grid by mid-2022. SRK is currently conducting a number of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for
gas-to-power projects in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
SRK Contributor:
Nicola Rump
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