South Africa’s Department of Energy (DoE) received 384 responses from renewable energy developers in response to a request for information (RFI) issued at the end of September for the initial phase of the country’s renewable energy feed-in tariff (Refit) programme.

In total, the projects represented some 20 000 MW of renewable energy capacity, as well as 4 000 MW of cogeneration capacity.

However, the DoE indicated on Monday that only a small number of the projects were in a sufficient “state of readiness” to participate in a full-blown procurement process, which would culminate in a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Eskom.

Fewer than 30 of the projects proposed through the RFI process had, for instance, received an indicative quote and preliminary timeframe for grid connection, which gave an indication that grid readiness was a potential barrier for deployment.

“Initial discussions with Eskom transmission planning division indicate the availability of connection capacity for Refit independent power producers is sufficient until 2016,” said the DoE.

Acting deputy director-general electricity, nuclear and clean energy Omphi Aphane explained that the RFI findings would inform the procurement programme, documentation for which would be released to the market during the first quarter of 2011.

Although the criteria for tendering was not immediately clarified, Aphane stated that the Electricity Regulations on New Generation Capacity, which were published on November 30, also provided further insight into what the tender criteria would be. The procurement process would also be defined in the new generation capacity regulations.

It was highlighted that environmental impact assessments (EIAs) were “always a major barrier for the deployment of renewables”, because agricultural land required rezoning in consultations with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Aphane added that the DoE was investigating how this process could be fast-tracked and accelerated.

With regard to the commitment of lenders, the DoE said that banks have committed to conducting their financial due diligence at the bidding phase, as per discussions with government, in order to reach financial close soon after PPAs have been signed.

Aphane also added that PPAs and the selection criteria were in advanced stages of conclusion.

The DoE said that in consultation with Eskom and other energy sector partners, it was matching the preliminary RFI findings with the existing industry conditions. This included mapping current market indications from the RFI to existing Eskom infrastructure and future grid planning.

Aphane said that new information gathered from the RFI would be factored into the second integrated resource plan (IRP 2010), a draft of which was recently released and was being canvassed through a public participation process.

Initially the IRP2010 allocated about 7 200 MW of electricity generation from renewable energy sources by 2030. This was equivalent to about 16% of the projected capacity in 2030.

However, if it was proven that renewable energy could contribute more, this amount could be increased going forward.

The RFI was conducted with technical and monetary assistance from the Embassy of Denmark n South Africa, and processed and analysed by independent consulting firm EA Energy Analyses.

Information received showed that wind power projects made up one third of the responses, and accounted for 70% of the total capacity within the RFI.

Solar photovoltaic projects accounted for one third of the responses, and 15% of the estimated capacity.

Concentrated solar power accounted for 5% of responses, and about 10% of the potential capacity.

The remainder of the responses were from biomass projects, hydropower projects, landfill gas and biogas projects.