Africa-Press – South-Africa. South Africa’s electricity ministry selected seven groups of companies as pre-qualified bidders for the country’s R440 billion transmission-grid expansion program.
Companies among the consortia include: Adani Power Ltd.’s Middle East unit, Chinese firms State Grid International Development Ltd. and China Southern Power Grid International Co., and Electricite de France SA, the ministry said in a statement Monday in the capital, Pretoria.
Adani Power is a company owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.
Adani is the founder and chairman of the Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate involved in port development and operations in India.
He is ranked by Forbes as the 27th richest man in the world with a net worth of $71 billion, and the second richest man in India, after Mukesh Ambani ($108 billion).
The Adani Group has several subsidiaries in the power and energy sector, including Adani Green Energy, Adani Power and Adani Energy Solutions.
This stage of the program “marks a defining milestone in government’s strategic drive to expand, modernise and strengthen South Africa’s transmission network through diversified delivery mechanisms and sustained private sector participation, in support of long-term economic growth, industrial development and national energy security,” Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa told reporters on Monday in the capital, Pretoria.
Ramokgopa also announced that four groups of companies had been selected as preferred bidders under Bid Window 7 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.
Upgrading South Africa’s transmission grid will underpin the government’s energy strategy. South Africa is gradually retiring coal-fired plants, which it currently depends on to generate the bulk of its power, and intends to utilise a range of technologies from gas to renewables to meet future demand, the government’s latest blueprint shows.
The first phase of the grid expansion will entail a request for proposals to build 1,164 kilometres of transmission lines designed to bring more than 3,000 megawatts of generation capacity online, Ramokgopa said in April.
A subsequent build of more than ten times the size of the pilot will also require the procurement and installation of transformers and other equipment.
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