The plan of South Africa’s government to lease LNG-to-power ships to solve its electricity crisis has drawn a lot of criticism because of alleged irregularities in the bidding process and the multi-billion cost for emergency supply for 20 years. Earlier this year, Karpowership, a company from Turkey, was announced as the Preferred Bidder for projects for the so-called powerships to be docked at the ports of Coega, Saldanha, and Richards Bay that will provide power to South Africa’s electricity grid under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP). Competitors of Karpowership, as well as environmentalists and the opposition in South Africa, say the bidding was rigged and would cost a lot to the nation for fossil fuel-powered electricity. Karpowership’s bid “offers low-cost electricity generation, supported by a clean thermal energy solution using LNG,” the company said in a statement in March. But South African gas company DNG […]