The Department of Energy (DoE) confirmed on Friday that the comment period for written submissions on the draft second integrated resource plan (IRP2010) would be extended by 30 days to December 10, 2010.

It also announced that the public hearings would begin in Durban on November 26, before moving to Cape Town on November 29, and Johannesburg on December 2 and 3.

The extension, the DoE said, meant that the IRP2010 would "most likely be promulgated by the end of the first quarter of 2011 instead of by the end of the year, as had initially been planned.

"We have been overwhelmed by the manner in which ordinary South Africans, including civil society, have internalised and taken interest in the IRP for electricity," director-general Nelisiwe Magubane said in a statement.

She added that as of Thursday, the Department had received 80 requests from groups seeking to make presentations at the four public hearings earmarked as part of the public consultation process.

These gatherings would be preceded by a public participation event in Upington, in the Northern Cape, which would be held on Tuesday October 26, ahead of a big solar park investor conference.

The IRP2010 was released earlier in October and has already been criticised by some as leaning heavily on coal and nuclear solutions, despite providing for an upscaling of wind, solar, landfill and hydropower over the medium term.