POWER POLITICS OP-ED: Eleven years, thousands of megawatts, zero delivery — SA’s gas-to-power procurement failure
South Africa still has no new gas-fired independent power producer capacity, as developers struggle to secure bankable fuel supplies.
South Africa's quest to generate new gas-fired independent power production has hit a dead end, despite a decade of government efforts. The latest bid window for the Gas Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (GASIPPPP) concluded on 29 May 2026 without any preferred bidders or megawatts awarded. This setback comes after over 11 years of procurement initiatives, with no new gas-fired IPP capacity delivered.
The program sought to procure 2,000 MW of gas-fired electricity generation, but failed to meet mandatory functional criteria as bidders could not assure long-term gas supply. The first attempt at gas-to-power procurement began in 2015, with plans to procure about 3,000 MW of gas-fired generation, but never progressed to formal bids.
The latest round, GASIPPPP Bid Window 1, targeted 2,000 MW of land-based gas-fired generation, but the bidding process was plagued by concerns over fuel-supply arrangements, gas pricing, infrastructure dependencies, and commercial risks. The fundamental issue remains the lack of assured gas supply, as South Africa imports most of its natural gas from Mozambique.
Written by urgent.news from Daily Maverick's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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