Article28 Sep 2020 10:17
https://www.news24.com/news24/columnists/cyrilramaphosa/cyril-ramaphosa-eskom-we-are-making-progress-in-overcoming-the-challenges-20200928
A government we have decided that to grow our economy and attract investment, secure and sustainable energy supply is paramount.
It is therefore vital that we significantly, and speedily, increase our electricity generation capacity.
Additional power generation
Following the commitments we made in the State of the Nation Address in February, government has now gazetted ministerial determinations that will enable the development of more than 11,800 megawatts (MW) of additional power generation. To give a sense of the scale of this development, South Africa currently has in the region of over 30,000 MW of electricity available on the national grid each day.
This signals government’s clear intention to move ahead with one of the key reforms that is needed to unlock the growth of our economy and attract much-needed investment.
This new energy will be procured from diverse sources, including solar, wind, gas, coal and storage. While meeting our energy needs well into the future, this new capacity will also help us meet our international obligations to reduce carbon emissions.
This electricity will be procured through a transparent tendering process that prioritises competitiveness and cost-effectiveness.
Most importantly at a time when energy supply is severely constrained, new generation projects that can be connected to the grid as soon as possible will be prioritised. The next step, which will be following soon, is to initiate various procurement bidding windows including opening Bid Window 5 of the renewable energy independent power producer programme.
This is in addition to the 2,000 MW of emergency power that is being urgently sought through the Risk Mitigation Procurement Programme to meet the country’s current energy shortfall.
In an effort to facilitate electricity self-generation and as part of the reform process, we have removed the licensing requirement for self-generation projects under 1 MW. So far 156 self-generation facilities under 1 MW have been registered, with a total installed capacity of 72 MW.
For facilities that can generate above 1 megawatt, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa is improving its licensing processes to improve turnaround time. So far, five such facilities, with total installed capacity of 25 megawatts, have been licenced. Further work is being undertaken to reform the regulatory environment to ensure that we make fuller use of the great potential in this country for self-generation among commercial and industrial users.
As part of our regulatory reforms, draft amendments to regulations that would enable municipalities in good standing to procure their own power from independent power producers will soon be gazetted.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
