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Following the commitments made in the State of the Nation Address in February, the government has published ministerial determinations that will allow the development of more than 11,800 megawatts (MW) of additional power generation.
“To give an idea of the scale of this development, South Africa currently has in the region more than 30,000 MW of electricity available on the national grid each day,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement Monday.
This indicates the government’s clear intention to go ahead with one of the key reforms needed to unlock growth in the economy and attract much-needed investment, he said.
“This new energy will be obtained from various sources, such as solar, wind, gas, coal and storage. While meeting our energy needs in the future, this new capacity will also help us meet our international obligations to reduce carbon emissions.
“This electricity will be acquired through a transparent bidding process that prioritizes competitiveness and profitability,” said Ramaphosa,
More importantly, at a time when power supply is severely restricted, new generation projects that can be connected to the grid as soon as possible will be prioritized, he said.
“The next step, which will follow soon, is to initiate several procurement bidding windows, including the opening of Bid Window 5 of the independent renewable energy producer program.
“This is in addition to the 2,000 MW of emergency energy that is urgently sought through the Risk Mitigation Procurement Program to cover the country’s current energy deficit.”
Remove restrictions
In an effort to facilitate self-generation of electricity and as part of the reform process, Ramaphosa said the government removed the license requirement for self-generation projects of less than 1 MW.
So far 156 self-generation facilities of less than 1 MW have been registered, with a total installed capacity of 72 MW, he said.
“For facilities that can generate more than 1 megawatt, the South African National Energy Regulator is improving its licensing processes to improve response time.
“So far, five of these facilities have been authorized, with a total installed capacity of 25 megawatts. More work is underway to reform the regulatory environment to ensure that we make more full use of this country’s great potential for self-generation among commercial and industrial users. “
“As part of the regulatory reforms, draft amendments to the regulations that would allow reputable municipalities to source their own energy from independent power producers will be published soon.”
Eskom and load shedding
The president said the government is working to restore Eskom’s operational capabilities and restructure the power company to fundamentally change the way the government generates and transmits electricity in the country.
“Our vision is to lead South Africa through a just transition that ensures that as many people as possible benefit from the investment, growth and job creation that we can achieve by expanding our electricity generation capacity,” he said. .
Ramaphosa said the government is making progress in overcoming the challenges Eskom has been facing for several years.
“As part of the necessary restructuring process, separate governance structures in the form of boards have been appointed for the power company’s generation, transmission, and distribution divisions, as we announced in the State of the Nation Address.
“Improvements in municipal debt collection continue. Despite the recent challenges we have faced with reducing load, maintenance work continues on the power plants. ”
The president said that concerns that have arisen about energy policy uncertainty are continually being addressed through the reform process that is at the center of our national economic recovery effort.
“The progress we are making in the area of energy policy reform is not only critical to solving the current energy supply crisis. It will begin to reduce the impact of power outages on businesses.
“It will create investment possibilities – and upstream and downstream industrialization opportunities – as we build new generation capacity and expand the power grid in the coming years,” he said.
Read: South Africa to tender 12,000 MW of new independent electricity sources, including wind, solar and gas
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