No bidders, no megawatts: Ramokgopa's 2 000MW gas round collapses as four bids fail the test

Bid Window 1 of the Gas Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (GASIPPPP) has closed without appointing a single preferred bidder, after all four submitted bids failed the mandatory functional criteria. No generation capacity was awarded.

The window had sought some 2 000MW of generation capacity in line with the IRP2019 and IRP2025. On 29 May 2026 the Department of Electricity and Energy received four bids offering a total of 2 830MW.

Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the outcome does not change the government’s direction. “South Africa is not retreating from our gas-to-power objectives. As the first in Africa to take on this ambition, we are further enabled by this first procurement process to strengthen the conditions necessary to achieve them,” he said.

“Our responsibility now is to address the infrastructure, commercial and institutional conditions required to translate market interest into viable and deliverable projects.”

The department put the failure down to the fuel supply requirement. The request for proposals required bidders to provide assurances of gas supply. South Africa is potentially well endowed with natural gas but imports most of its gas supply requirements from Mozambique and has no LNG receiving terminal.

“The bidders were unable to provide gas supply assurances to the level required in the RFP. This is one of the main reasons that none of the bidders satisfied the mandatory functional criteria,” the department said.

The procurement had been a long time in the making. Extensive stakeholder consultations were held and culminated in the issuance of a revised GASIPPPP BW1 Request for Proposals on 20 October 2025.

The department said the first bid window still produced “practical insights into the requirements necessary to translate the country’s gas-to-power objectives into a delivered programme”. It cited the interdependencies between procurement requirements, technical feasibility, fuel-supply arrangements, enabling infrastructure, affordability, environmental obligations and project implementation readiness, and said the lessons will inform how the programme is structured and supported going forward.

Consultations with relevant market participants will be prioritised to inform consideration of the programme’s future direction. The department said any subsequent procurement process, including its requirements and timelines, will be subject to the necessary statutory, governance and procurement approvals, and that it will communicate further information through official channels before the end of the calendar year.

The department and the IPP Office said they remain committed to procurement integrity, constructive stakeholder engagement and advancing South Africa’s gas-to-power objectives in support of long-term energy security.

This report is drawn from the SAnews (South African Government News Agency) account of the department’s statement, not from the procurement documents themselves. Source: https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/government-not-retreating-gas-power-minister-ramokgopa