Presidency claims 'making headway' in tackling power crisis
The National Energy Crisis Committee released a six-month progress update on the implementation of its plan to end load shedding on Saturday.
The update follows an extended period of load shedding which was escalated to stage 6 in the second week of January due to a high number of breakdowns across Eskom’s generation fleet.
The committee found that a lack of maintenance, and flaws in the design of new power stations in the last decade, have played a major role in the ongoing energy crisis.
President Cyril Ramaphosa convened the NECOM during the week amid immense pressure on government to solve the country's power woes.
The progress update released on Saturday outlined some of the steps taken:
- Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act has been amended to remove the licensing requirement for generation projects, which will significantly accelerate private investment.
- Since the licensing threshold was first raised to 100 MW, the pipeline of private sector projects has grown to more than 100 projects with over 9000 MW of capacity. The first of these large-scale projects are expected to connect to the grid by the end of this year.
- The NECOM has instructed departments to cut red tape and streamline regulatory processes for energy projects, including reducing the timeframe for environmental authorisations.
- A new Ministerial determination has been published for 14771 MW of new generation capacity from wind, solar and battery storage to accelerate further bid windows.
- An additional 300 MW has been imported through the Southern African Power Pool, and negotiations are underway to secure a potential 1,000 MW from neighbouring countries starting this year.
- Eskom has developed and launched a programme to purchase power from companies with available generation capacity through a standard offer. The first contracts are expected to be signed in the coming weeks.
- A team of independent experts has been established to work closely with Eskom to diagnose the problems at poorly performing power stations and take action to improve plant performance.
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