4 days to deadline day – Will Mantashe’s disastrous RMIPPP meet its (extended) deadline?
24 January 2022
With 4 days left before the 27 January 2022 deadline to reach financial close for the repeatedly delayed Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMPIPP), the lack of a status update from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) raises the prospect of yet another deadline extension and a programme on the verge of collapse.
For the RMIPPP to proceed to implementation stage, preferred bidders should already have secured Environmental Impact Assessment approvals, port authorisations, pipeline agreements, power off-take MoUs and fuel purchase agreements. However, all indications are that the bidders are yet to meet some or all of these mandatory requirements.
If the bidders to the RMIPPP fail to meet the financial close deadline, the question is whether DMRE will follow through on its commitment to effect consequences on the respective bidders. In March 2021, DMRE’s IPP Office Acting Chief Operating Officer Maduna Ngobeni stated that:
“…there are consequences for a preferred bidder failing to achieve financial closure and commercial operation by the target dates. If the dates for financial closure or commercial operation are not met, the bid bond can be pulled or the power purchase agreement (PPA) can be terminated.”