Sej Motau of the Democratic Alliance is to write to Energy Minister Dipuo Peters asking for independent power producers to get more time to make submissions detailing their readiness to develop electricity generation projects.

The week given by the department last week should be extended to at least a fortnight to give all those interested a fair chance, he said on Monday.

"This call by the department is a very important intervention as it could mark the beginning of a process that could launch a significant procurement process for electricity generated from renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, hydro power and bio-mass under the renewable energy feed-in tariff (Refit), Motau said.

"Previous efforts to get IPP participation have been patchy and this exercise has to take off if the DoE is to meet its target of having 10,000 gigawatt hours of electricity produced from renewable sources by 2013.

"Energy Minister Dipuo Peters has already said this target will be met."

Motau said the DA notes the assurance by the department's deputy director-general of electricity, nuclear and clean energy, Ompi Aphane, that potential developers will not be disqualified from the Refit procurement programme if they do not submit the required information within the stipulated time.