South Africa is joining a global scramble to boost power generation capacity by soliciting bids for new plant construction projects from groups including Siemens, Alstom and Hitachi, which are already in hot demand in other fast-growing economies.

Chastened by unprecedented power cuts in recent months, the government has launched a R97bn (£6.8bn) five-year plan to expand electricity production, and Alec Erwin, public enterprises minister, visited London last week to woo the three potential suppliers.