The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the move by the Department of Energy to facilitate the participation of independent power producers (IPPs) to contribute to the national grid. Last week, the Department called on IPPs to provide it with information detailing their readiness to develop electricity generation projects. This is a step that the DA has continuously called for in order to relive the pressure on Eskom and to mitigate the country's massive carbon foot-print. However, the mere one week allocated to IPPs to make their submissions is not sufficient and should be extended to at least 14 days in order to give all interested IPPs a fair chance to submit information. The DA will be writing to the Minister of Energy requesting that this period be extended.

This call by the department is a very important intervention as it could mark the beginning of a process that could launch a significant procurement process for electricity generated from renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, hydro power and bio-mass under the renewable energy feed-in tariff (Refit). Previous efforts to get IPP participation have been patchy and this exercise has to take off if the DoE is to meet its target of having 10 000GWh of electricity produced from renewable sources by 2013. Energy Minister Dipuo Peters has already said this target will be met.

We note the assurance by the department's Deputy Director-General of Electricity, Nuclear and Clean Energy, Mr Ompi Aphane, that potential developers will not be disqualified from the Refit procurement programme if they do not submit the required information within the stipulated time. This assurance should be honoured. The DA will monitor the situation accordingly.

The DA would also like to urge the department to apply similar urgency and purposefulness with regard to the establishment of a non-conflicted independent system and market operator (ISMO) as this will also facilitate participation of IPPs and their contribution to the national grid. While the department has committed to this process, the DA was concerned by remarks made by Eskom that an interim ISMO based in Eskom would be established and that it could take between five and 10 years to have a permanent ISMO in place.

This is problematic. The DA would thus like to remind the department of the response by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe when this concern was raised with him recently in Parliament: "My understanding is that this (establishment of a non-conflicted ISMO) must be fast-tracked."

We hope that both Eskom and the department have a similar understanding of this important and urgent matter. Meanwhile, we urge all IPPs to take advantage of this call by the department and make their information submissions promptly.