Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has confirmed that no preferred bidders were appointed in South Africa’s first gas-to-power round, Engineering News reported on Wednesday, 28 October. The department’s own statement was not available to us at the time of writing.
The Gas Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme set out to buy 2,000MW of generation capacity, in line with the Integrated Resource Plan for electricity. Four bids were received on 29 May 2026, according to the list published by the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Together they offered 2,830MW.
According to Engineering News, the department reported on 28 October that the bidders could not give gas-supply assurances at the level the request for proposals required. That meant none met the mandatory functional criteria. “Consequently, no preferred Bidders were appointed and no generation capacity was awarded for the GASIPPPP BW1,” the minister said in the statement, as quoted by Engineering News.
The four bids covered two fuels. Two projects planned to run on liquefied natural gas: Khanyazwe Flexpower in Mpumalanga at 440MW and the Pictor consortium in KwaZulu-Natal at 990MW. Two planned to use natural gas: Kelvin Redevelopment in Gauteng at 600MW and Komatipoort Power in Mpumalanga at 800MW.
The department issued the revised request for proposals on 20 October 2025, after consulting potential bidders. Bids closed seven months later.
Source: Development Bank of Southern Africa bid list; Engineering News. Chart: Rand Desk
Ramokgopa said South Africa would not retreat from its gas-to-power objectives. He said the infrastructure, commercial and institutional conditions needed to turn market interest into viable, deliverable projects had to be addressed first. The department will now give priority to continued engagement with market participants “to inform consideration of the programme’s future direction”.
Any later procurement, including its requirements and timelines, will need the statutory, governance and procurement approvals, according to the statement. The department said it would communicate further through official channels before the end of the calendar year.
The outcome lands three weeks after the same department set out a much larger gas ambition. On 7 October, Ramokgopa set out the approach he proposes for the first determination under the 2025 Integrated Resource Plan: 4,600MW of battery storage and 5,000MW of gas-to-power as the priorities. The department said then that procurement design would weigh gas supply and delivered price together with ports, pipelines, grid connections and commissioning dates. The failed window bears on the first of those: the bidders could not show a secure fuel supply.
In the 7 October statement, the department described gas plants as the source of supply on days when wind and solar fall short or demand climbs. Storage cannot do that job alone. Gas depends on a fuel supply arriving at a workable price, which is the assurance the bidders could not give.
The programme sits alongside other power procurement. Eskom has separately launched a search for partners for up to 6GW of solar, wind and storage, a route that does not depend on a gas supply. Separately, Ekurhuleni has won approval to buy power from independent producers.
The next marker is the department’s promised update on the programme’s future direction, due before 31 December 2026.
