Cabinet approves SA's updated energy plan

The approval was confirmed by Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni during a  post-cabinet briefing on Monday morning.

Among other things, the plan proposes amending the decommissioning schedule for Eskom's end-of-life power stations.

The draft will now be published for public comments and consultation.

Ntshavheni said it will serve as a guide for government procurement of new generation capacity with improved changes from the IRP 2019.

"The draft IRP 2023 reviews the approved IRP 2019 and covers two time horizons, namely the 2030 and 2050 time horizons.

“Several key assumptions used in the IRP 2019 have significantly changed, including the electricity demand projection, Eskom’s energy availability factor, Eskom’s coal-fired power plants shutdown plan, as well as the cost of new power generation technologies.

“The 2030 time horizon (Horizon One) focuses on addressing prevailing generation capacity constraints, whereas the 2031 – 2050 time horizon (Horizon 2) focuses on an analysis of the energy mix pathways for sustainable security of supply.

"For Horizon One – five scenarios have been developed and assessed based on the state of readiness of projects in the pipeline. For Horizon 2, six energy pathways were considered to assess the impact of the different energy technologies in ensuring the country’s power system security of supply at the least cost to the economy. The reference pathway establishes a benchmark against other pathways based on the least cost.

“The five other pathways are based on certain guiding policy principles, and they are designed to be exploratory in nature. These policy principles were formulated with a focus on decarbonising the power system, shutting down of existing coal-fired power stations post 2035, and exploring clean coal technologies including carbon capture," added Ntshavheni.

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