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The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is calling for Independent Power Producers to apply for water use authorisations to utilise its water resources, water courses and infrastructure such as rivers and dams, to generate hydropower as an alternative energy to supplement the current electricity available in the grid.

The DWS has initiated the DWS Hydropower Independent Producer Programme (DWS HIPP) in an effort to allow for the available infrastructure and water courses to be used to contribute to the power grid with renewable energy.

The Department will hold a hybrid briefing session on Tuesday, 11 April 2023, 10h00, at Protea Hotel OR Tambo in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, where interested applicants will be taken through the programme and application processes.

Government has approved for multipronged interventions to address the current energy crisis which has led to loadshedding across the country in order to manage the available energy.

One of the key objectives of the government’s Energy Action Plan was to remove barriers to new generation capacity and unlocking energy from many different sources, including independent power producers in order to add as much energy as possible to the grid.

Linked to this objective is an intervention aimed at enabling and accelerating private investment in generation capacity.

The Department is inviting persons to make use of the water resources, watercourses and its infrastructure to generate renewable energy power. The types of hydropower technologies to apply for include Impoundment; river diversion or run-of-river; pumped storage and floating or kinetic turbines (small scale generating capacity). In addition to the above, applications for floating solar panels can also be made.

A window for applications will be opened on 17 April 2023 for interested parties to submit pre-applications for water use authorisations. 

Information on the application process is accessible in the Electronic Water Use Licence and Application and Authorisation System (E-WULAAS) on: DWS: E-WULAAS - Documents on the department website homepage.

Issued by Department of Water and Sanitation