Ipsa, the South African power developer, says it will start providing steam and power from its Newcastle gas-fired power plant from February 23, subject to the receipt of its generating licence.
The plant will be Ipsa’s first as well as South Africa’s first independent gas-fired power plant.
Ipsa was created in 2005 to develop, own and manage power plants in Southern Africa.
Ipsa says the Newcastle station is one of the country’s most environmentally friendly plants, and that it intends to apply to the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) to be considered eligible for carbon credits.
In October last year, the company took up a secondary listing on AltX, raising R30,9-million in a simultaneous share issue.
The company is also busy negotiating a $540-$640-million Coega power project with Eskom, which will see it having 1Â MW of capacity by the first quarter of 2008 if all regulatory hurdles are achieved on schedule.
Ipsa shares were bid at R6,10 each by late morning on Friday, valuing the company at just under R400-million.
The company says it intends to release its results for the 15 months to end-September 2006 on January 31. – I-Net Bridge