South Africa’s Independent Power Producers (IPP) Office has said that 33 bids have been received as part of the third window of the country’s battery energy storage auctions. The bids have come from 28 companies, with two bidding for multiple sites. The bidders include France’s TotalEnergies, which has made several submissions.
The third window of the BESIPPPP was announced in March 2024 with a target of securing 616 MW/2,464 MWh of new energy storage-related electricity capacity. Projects will be installed across five substations in Free State province. The Harvard, Leander, Theseus, Everest, and Merapi substations were nominated by national energy utility Eskom.
Providing more energy storage is key to Eskom’s strategy to stabilize the South African grid. Bid submission date for the auction was supposed to be in July 2024 but was moved to November 2024. The IPP Office published the identities of the bidders on its website on Nov. 28.
