South Africa Unveils Shortlisted Consortia for its Massive Independent Transmission Program

On 15 December 2025, the Department of Electricity and Energy of South Africa announced the shortlisted companies or consortia that were shortlisted for the Independent Transmission Program (#ITP).

The pre-qualified consortia are Momentous Energy led by Adani Power from India, AREF Cobra led by Grupo Cobra from Spain, Pulse Infrastructure, led by Celeo Redes from Spain, EITP led by Okavango Projects from South Africa, State Grid by State Grid from China, Transmission Africa Consortium led by Southern Power Grid from China, and Hyperion led by EDF from France.

Initially, 17 bidders took part in the pre-qualification phase, and now seven have been retained based on their technical and financial capabilities to deliver large-scale high-voltage transmission projects. The ITP involves the deployment of 14,5000 kilometers of transmission lines across the country, although high priority areas point to the Northern and Western Cape that currently have zero extra transmission capacity. The carrying capacity has been upgraded from 30 GW to handle up to 54 GW.

In support of the implementation of the ITP, the Government has created the South African Wholesale Electricity Market (SAWEM) and has carved out the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA) from Eskom to manage the grid separately.

The Program requires a #LocalContent threshold with at least 49% South African-based ownership. Also, bidders are incentivized to use local manufacturing for the towers and cables. The evaluation criteria are largely modeled after the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP), which employed the 70/30 evaluation framework, whereby 70% is for price, and 30% is for socio-economic criteria, including local content and women or youth empowerment.