Renewable energy auctions in sub-Saharan Africa
type: CreativeWork
description: Africa is short of power. Over the past decade, renewable energy auctions have emerged as an effective mechanism to competitively procure utility-scale private power projects. This thesis sought to analyse successful renewable energy auctions in sub-Saharan Africa and identify the elements contributing to efficient price and effective project realisation outcomes through comparative case studies in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia. The analysis of empirical data was deepened with reference to existing literature and theory on those elements that contribute to success in Independent Power Projects (IPPs), combined with that on renewable energy auction design and implementation. Project success is defined, from the host country perspective, as competitive project prices and timely project realisation. The literature on contributing elements to IPP success has focused mainly on country and project level factors and the literature on auction design and implementation on programme level factors. An integrated analytical framework that combines these bodies of literature has shown that the introduction of renewable energy auctions provides an essential programmatic element which connects existing country level factors (for example the investment climate, sector regulation, etc.) and project levels factors (for example, project finance and contracts) and is crucial in achieving superior project realisation and price outcomes. Auction price outcomes were mainly determined by factors that act as auction signals, barriers and incentives primarily geared towards increasing competition in the procurement process and lowering projects' cost of capital. These factors include setting and dividing auction volumes prudently over multiple rounds; building and maintaining bidders' trust in the auctioning authority and auction process; limiting auction participation to credible bidders; and ensuring that the contract being bid for is acceptable to lenders and backed by a secure revenue…
abstract: Africa is short of power. Over the past decade, renewable energy auctions have emerged as an effective mechanism to competitively procure utility-scale private power projects. This thesis sought to analyse successful renewable energy auctions in sub-Saharan Africa and identify the elements contributing to efficient price and effective project realisation outcomes through comparative case studies in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia. The analysis of empirical data was deepened with reference to existing literature and theory on those elements that contribute to success in Independent Power Projects (IPPs), combined with that on renewable energy auction design and implementation. Project success is defined, from the host country perspective, as competitive project prices and timely project realisation. The literature on contributing elements to IPP success has focused mainly on country and project level factors and the literature on auction design and implementation on programme level factors. An integrated analytical framework that combines these bodies of literature has shown that the introduction of renewable energy auctions provides an essential programmatic element which connects existing country level factors (for example the investment climate, sector regulation, etc.) and project levels factors (for example, project finance and contracts) and is crucial in achieving superior project realisation and price outcomes. Auction price outcomes were mainly determined by factors that act as auction signals, barriers and incentives primarily geared towards increasing competition in the procurement process and lowering projects' cost of capital. These factors include setting and dividing auction volumes prudently over multiple rounds; building and maintaining bidders' trust in the auctioning authority and auction process; limiting auction participation to credible bidders; and ensuring that the contract being bid for is acceptable to lenders and backed by a secure revenue…
author: Kruger, Johannes Lodewikus
keywords: Business
date published: 2021
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:22:42Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Graduate School of Business (GSB)

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35740