|
27 August 2007 -- The AES Corporation said the Department of Minerals and Energy of the Republic of South Africa (DME) has selected an AES consortium as preferred bidder to build, own and operate two open cycle gas turbine peaking power plants, a 760MW plant in KwaZulu Natal Province and a 342MW plant in the Eastern Cape Province.
Electricity will be sold through a fifteen year power purchase agreement with Eskom, the South African state-owned power utility. Financial closure is expected by early December 2007, with commercial operations expected to begin by the end of 2009.
To address the need for new generation capacity, the South African government has set a policy requiring that the private sector build 30 percent of the new generating power through independent power plants. This peaking power generation project represents the first of these planned investments by the private sector in addition to Eskom's plans to invest $21 billion over the next five years.
AES undertakes this project in partnership with three South African Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partners: Tiso Energy, Mbane Power and Kurisani Youth Development Trust, the investment arm of loveLife, a high profile HIV/AIDS awareness program.
AES has been operating in Africa since 2001. AES SONEL provides power to the country of Cameroon. As an integrated utility, it both generates power and distributes it to over 528,000 customers in the country. AES SONEL expects to add approximately 750,000 new electricity connections throughout the country by 2021 by adding approximately 50,000 new electricity connections each year over the next 15 years. AES also operates 305 MW of gas-fired generation in Nigeria.
| 
Articles 
| View all PennWell sites | View all PennWell events
Add RSS Feed
