Turkish company Karpowership, one of the world’s largest powership firms, has submitted a plan to the South African government to provide several ships capable of plugging a severe power shortage in the country.

In December 2019, South Africa’s energy department issued a request for information (RFI) to source between 2,000 and 3,000 megawatts (MW) of power generation capacity that could be connected in the shortest time, at the least cost.

Speaking to Reuters, Patrick O’Driscoll, global sales director at Karpowership, said that the company has responded to the tender through the planned use of power ships.

“We have made a submission to the department as of last Friday and they received information on what is possible, where and how we would look to do it,” he said.

“We have identified several locations that we believe are potential injection points.”

Speaking to MyBroadband in January, energy advisor Ted Blom said that powerships are cost-effective, privately owned and operated floating power stations which can be moored at South African harbours.

Each powership contains its own generation, electrical control, and substation components. The ship also includes its own maintenance workshop and engineering capabilities.

The onboard substation can be connected to the national grid without lengthy delays or complicated engineering.

They either come on ships which are placed at a harbour, or you fly in units and you install them on land,” Blom said.

He added that this is not a cheap option, but when compared to the impact of load-shedding on the economy it is the better option.

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