Eskom seeks indemnity from Karpowership over corruption allegations

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa’s bid to se cure 2, 000 megawatts of so-called emergency elec tricity has hit an obstacle, with Eskom asking the big gest winner of the tender to indemnify it against any adverse outcomes from corruption allegations, two people familiar with the situation said.

A losing bidder, DNG Power, alleged in a lawsuit that government officials acted corruptly in award ing Turkey’s Karpowership about 60 percent of the tender that will see it sup plying energy from three ship-mounted power plants off the South African coast.

While DNG, which de manded that it replace Karpowership, lost the High Court case in January it has been allowed to appeal.

The government and Karpowership have denied wrongdoing.

Karpowership has de clined to sign an indemnity clause, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions have not been made public. Eskom has yet to revert with a new proposal they said. Eskom and Karpowership declined to comment.

The process of securing the extra power in a country that’s been hit by intermit tent power outages for more than a decade has been a fraught one since the con tracts were awarded in April last year. In addition to the court case, which initially stopped all the winning bid ders from completing their financial arrangements, Karpowership has yet to win environmental approval or the right to moor its ships in South Africa’s ports.

Eskom has yet to sign power-purchase agree ments with any of the win ning groups, which include TotalEnergies SE, Electricite de France SA, Scatec ASA and Acwa Power Co. – BLOOMBERG NEWS.