Karpowership, the Turkish company seeking to install ship-mounted power plants in South African ports, is appealing a decision not to grant it more time to file an environmental permit to operate a 320 megawatt plant on the country’s west coast.

The company’s request for an extension to apply for the permit for the gas-fired plant at the Saldanha port was rejected on May 23 and an appeal was made a day later, according to documents from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

Karpowership had sought condonation to refile documents pertaining to the Saldanha operation including a submission on how it sets up its plants to mitigate environmental effects, known as a generic EMPR.

The company in March 2021 won three-fifths of a government tender for 2,000 megawatts of emergency power to ease crippling electrical shortages. In addition to Saldanha, it plans to install 450 megawatt plants at the eastern port of Richards Bay and the southern port of Ngqura. While it’s yet to get environmental permits for any of the projects the Department of Transport has given it permission to moor its ships.

(Updates with ship-mooring permission in last paragraph)