The Minister of Electricity’s progress report to Parliament today has highlighted glaring gaps in the plans to deal with the energy crisis in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. 

While we appreciate that some progress has been made, and that the Minister has continued to keep South Africans informed of both the progress and the setbacks, we needed to hear the Minister address the source of the crisis – a lack of generation capacity and a lack of transmission capacity.

The Minister focused on the progress achieved to date but the generation capacity remains a serious concern. With 13 559MW of breakdowns and planned maintenance of 4 765MW, over 18 000MW is at risk on the grid. 

This impacts jobs, livelihoods, education, health and safety facilities, and drags down our already fragile economy. This is obviously not sustainable nor is it only a domestic problem. Our economy needs foreign investment and foreign investors need to believe that our country will be good for their business growth. 

We were previously informed that acquiring 1000MW from Mozambique would be a fast solution and a testament to African unity. Yet we also heard the Mozambiquan government complaining that they are still waiting for plans to simply progress this deal, let alone implement it. 

The Karpowership deal was also hailed as a fast and innovative solution. But the deal is now tainted by a controversial contract deal and the inability to satisfy environmental impact concerns.  While the Karpowerships await legal closure they are hogging 1220MW of grid capacity restricting other REIPPPP projects from grid access. 

Projects that are delayed, while having grid capacity reserved for them, should be abandoned so that we can get shovel-ready renewable energy projects approved and onto the grid. 

South Africa must follow the guidelines laid out in SAREM (South African Renewable Energy Masterplan) and prioritize completion of all outstanding REIPPPP projects, use the strong trade connections highlighted at our BRICS conference to acquire the necessary raw materials as well as technological advice and abandon all projects that are unfeasible.

 

Issued by Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament