The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) cancelled two days of planned hearings called to receive public comment on the regulator providing its concurrence to three Ministerial determinations opening the way for the procurement of 18 771 MW of new electricity capacity.

Nersa said that the hearings had been cancelled as no requests were received from stakeholders to make representations on the matter.

In terms of Section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act, the regulator is required to provide its concurrence prior the conclusion of the determination process by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy.

It is also required to consult the public before offering such concurrence. This was confirmed in 2017 when the Western Cape High Court declared “unlawful and unconstitutional” government’s 2013 and 2016 determinations relating to the procurement of 9 600 MW of new nuclear on the basis that they had not been subjected to Nersa-led public consultations.

Three consultation papers were published by the regulator on August 26 regarding its concurrence with proposed Ministerial determinations delivered to it by Minerals Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe for the procurement of 14 771 MW of wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) generation, 3 000 MW of gas-to-power and 1 000 MW of ‘Other Distributed Generation, Co-Gen, Biomass, Landfill’ capacity.

The lack of concurrence on the new renewables Ministerial determination resulted in the National Energy Crisis Committee deciding recently to reduce the size of Bid Window Six of the renewables procurement programme from 5 200 MW to 4 200 MW.

President Cyril Ramaphosa initially announced that the size of the round would be doubled from 2 600 MW, but the solar PV allocation provided for by a previous determination was insufficient to allow for a doubling in the PV allocation to 2 000 MW. Therefore, only the wind allocation was doubled to 3 200 MW, while the solar allocation was held at 1 000 MW.

The potential opportunity cost became apparent after the bid submission deadline of October 3, when the IPP Office confirmed that the PV allocation was more than five-times oversubscribed with the combined capacity of the 33 solar PV bids being about  5 550 MW. By contrast the wind allocation was only 30% oversubscribed with the 23 bids having a combined capacity of about 4 100 MW.

GAS DEVIATION

In addition, Nersa circulated an erratum on September 12 in relation to it providing concurrence to a Ministerial determination for the procurement of 3 000 MW of gas-fired electricity.

In its original consultation paper, the regulator said that the 3 000 MW was based on an allocation for gas/diesel generation outlined in Table 5 of the Integrated Resource Plan of 2019.

In the erratum, however, it clarified that the 3 000 MW arose from an Eskom application to deviate from the IRP2019 for a combined cycle gas power plant at Richards Bay, in KwaZulu-Natal.

It was anticipated that this deviation request would attract stakeholder comment, particularly given that some environmental groups had approached the courts recently to have the environmental authorisation for the project reviewed and set aside. That application failed.

The fact that no requests were made to make oral submissions also raised questions as to whether the hearings had been sufficiently advertised, as notice of the hearings could not be found on the Nersa website, nor on its social media platforms.

There had been newspaper adverts in the Business Day, Beeld and Sowetan, however.

NEW HEARING DATE?

In response to an Engineering News enquiry, Nersa insisted that it remained committed to "comprehensively consulting with our stakeholders" on the concurrence.

The regulator reported that it had received "numerous written comments to the consultation paper" and that it is considering advertising for a new hearing date.

"Stakeholders are advised to check the Nersa website and social media platforms for details of any future arrangements."

Nersa also stressed that it had processes and procedures in place to deal with requests for concurrence in terms of the Act, which must satisfy the provisions of the National Energy Regulator Act (NERA) and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA).

"Nersa is compelled to take decisions within a procedurally fair process wherein stakeholders can submit their views and present relevant facts and evidence.

"NERA takes a step further to that of PAJA wherein it is either submission of comments or public hearing, hence the conducting of public hearing is a step that must be undertaken."