South Africa is seeking proposals to shortlist bidders for a R390-billion grid expansion project to bolster the country’s energy security.

The department of electricity & energy invited “experienced and committed” groups to participate in a pre-qualification process for transmission projects, it said in an advertisement. The plan is to build 14 218km of transmission lines over the next decade.

“The private sector will design, finance, construct, operate and maintain” transmission lines and substations, it said. Bidders must have the “necessary technical expertise, financial capacity and proven experience required to deliver transmission capacity at significant scale and within accelerated timeframes”.

The call is a step forward in resolving the problems presented by the existing grid, which is skewed towards the coal belts in the east of the country while rapidly expanding solar and wind generation is predominantly in the western half of South Africa. To date, state utility Eskom has had a monopoly over electricity transmission.