South Africa has approved the construction of two coal-fired power plants with collective capacity of 863.3 MW under the first phase of the country’s two-phase Coal-based Independent Power Producer Program, which aims to generate an additional 2,500 MW by 2021.
Energy Minister Tina Joematt-Petterson said on Oct. 10 the 557.3-MW Thabametsi and 306-MW Khanyisa coal-fired power plants were picked because they offered to sell generated electricity to state-owned power utility Eskom at prices “far below the stipulated qualification first-year price.” The developers offered $60.25/MWh for Thabametsi and $59.32/MWh for Khanyisa, both well below the evaluation price of $75.41/MWh and $75.77/MWh, respectively, for the two projects.