Thought leadership on Africa's energy markets
Commentary on grid capacity, IPP regulation, and market developments across the SADC region.
Inside SAPP's Shift to Competitive Wholesale Trading — and What It Means for Cross-Border IPP Structuring
Zambia's 2024 open-access reform is turning the Southern African Power Pool's decades-old day-ahead market into a genuine venue for independent power producers. For cross-border IPP sponsors, that's a new structuring variable worth tracking alongside interconnector build-out.
SAWEM's Delay to April 2027: What It Means for Utility-Scale PPA Bankability in South Africa
South Africa's first competitive wholesale electricity market phase has slipped from 2026 to April 2027. For sponsors and lenders structuring utility-scale solar, wind and BESS deals, the delay is a signal to keep underwriting around Eskom's single-buyer PPA model a while longer — not a reason to pause.
South Africa's Grid Capacity Crunch Is Now the Real Test of Utility-Scale Bankability
As NERSA clears another all-solar tranche of REIPPPP Bid Window 7.3 and NTCSA discloses a R134-billion funding gap, transmission capacity — not project capital — has become the binding constraint separating bankable utility-scale IPPs from stranded ones.
Grid Capacity, Not Generation Technology, Is Now the Real Bankability Question
REIPPPP Bid Window 7's zero wind awards against a 3,200 MW allocation reveal transmission capacity as South Africa's binding constraint on utility-scale renewables — with direct implications for site selection, PPA tenor, and financial close timelines across the SADC pipeline.
Financial Close Nears for Zimbabwe's Answer to Drought-Hit Hydropower
Zimbabwe's Kariba Floating Solar Project is finalizing a US$400M investment package as its first phase nears financial close — a bankable, PPP-backed answer to reservoir declines that have forced power rationing across the shared Zimbabwe-Zambia grid.