Pretoria – The funding model of South Africa’s nuclear build programme will be determined by the response received from bidders, says the Department of Energy (DoE).
South Africa plans to introduce 9 600 Megawatts of nuclear energy to the grid in the next decade.
“The funding model of the project will be determined by the response received from the markets once bidders have responded to the request for procurement. This will also be done at a pace and scale that the government can afford,” said the department.
There have been media reports alleging that the power utility would in June issue a formal RFP from bidders. The department said the procurement and implementation timelines for the nuclear new build programme are dependent on the finalisation of all pre-procurement preparatory work.
In February, power utility Eskom said it had received a positive response to the Request for Information (RFI) it issued in relation to the proposed South African nuclear new build programme.
Twenty-seven companies stated their intention to provide a response to the RFI. The companies include major nuclear vendors from China (SNPTC), France (EdF), Russia (Rusatom Overseas) and South Korea (KEPCO).
At the time, the power utility said while the intention to submit a response to Eskom’s RFI does not commit a company to submit a response to a potential future Request for Proposal (RFP), the quantum of the response to Eskom’s RFI showed the level of competitive interest in South Africa’s nuclear new build programme.
The RFI was issued on Eskom’s website on 20 December 2016 and asked companies that felt they could provide relevant information to confirm by 10:30am on Tuesday, 31 January 2017 that they would be submitting a response to Eskom (for both Eskom and NECSA use) by 10am on 28 April 2017.
Eskom is the designated procurer for the nuclear new build programme.
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