President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced several measures to help end loadshedding.
He shared his energy action plan with the nation this evening.
Ramaphosa said the plan comes after extensive discussions with Eskom management, former Eskom personnel, labour federations, and political party leaders, among other stakeholders. He says bold action is now needed.
Ramaphosa also announced the establishment of a National Energy Crisis Committee, that will include the department of public enterprising, the department of environment, forestry and fisheries, the department of mineral resources and energy, SAPS and the Treasury. It will be co-ordinated from the presidency.
Other interventions include:
- Fixing Eskom and improving the power station fleet’s performance. Over the next 12 months, Eskom will increase its maintenance budget. Red tape will also be cut to help Eskom buy the necessary equipment and services for maintenance.
#EnergyActionPlan pic.twitter.com/pHvSRig9PG
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) July 25, 2022
- The utility is now recruiting skilled personnel including former Eskom engineers. Ramaphosa says he has been heartened by approaches from former plant managers who have left Eskom and came forward to say that they want to lend a hand.
- Over the next three months, Eskom will add new generation capacity on an urgent basis. Surplus capacity will be bought from independent power producers.
- Government will remove the 100 MW licensing threshold for embedded generation completely. This will enable private investment in electricity generation to rise to higher levels. All new generation projects will still be required to be registered.
“While existing legislation may be sufficient in ordinary times, the current crisis requires that we act decisively and more speedily.”
President @CyrilRamaphosa #EnergyActionPlan pic.twitter.com/oXG0I7aazm
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) July 25, 2022
- The president said Eskom will also now purchase additional power from mines, shopping centres and factories.
- Government will encourage private generation, by waiving regulatory requirements, reducing red tape, and exploring new legislation. Special legislation will be tabled in parliament to address legal and regulatory obstacles for new electricity generation.
- Commercial enterprises and households will, among others, be incentivised to install rooftop solar by developing a feed-in tariff to can sell power to Eskom.
“To incentivise greater uptake of rooftop solar, Eskom will develop rules and a pricing structure – known as a feed-in tariff – for all commercial and residential installations on its network.”
President @CyrilRamaphosa #EnergyActionPlan 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/WdU4smVEFj
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) July 25, 2022
- Government also wants to ensure that its existing procurement programmes through the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (Reippp) succeed and are expanded. Bid window 5 of the programme, which is facing constraints due to local content requirements and pricing, will be assisted to ensure that “all projects close” by “adopting a pragmatic approach to local content requirements”.
- Bid window 6, which is still open, will be doubled from 2600 MW to 5200 MW.
“Our second priority is therefore to accelerate the procurement of new capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage.”
President @CyrilRamaphosa #EnergyActionPlan pic.twitter.com/7ErN2QjqeW— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) July 25, 2022
Actions to end loadshedding #EnergyActionPlan https://t.co/Gbpn1hjFbp
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) July 25, 2022
