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China-Africa Trade Information Service
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China-Africa Trade Information Service
Photo by eskom.co.za
Pretoria — Eskom has welcomed the publishing of the country's energy and electricity plans for public comment.
Eskom generates approximately 95% of the electricity used in South Africa and approximately 45% of the electricity used in Africa. Eskom generates, transmits and distributes electricity to industrial, mining, commercial, agricultural and residential customers and redistributors. Additional power stations and major power lines are being built to meet rising electricity demand in South Africa. Eskom will continue to focus on improving and strengthening its core business of electricity generation, transmission, trading and distribution.
Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson on Tuesday announced the release of the much anticipated Energy Master Plan, which reveals government's medium to long term plans for electricity provision within the approved energy mix leading up 2050.
Minister Joemat-Pettersson said the Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) and the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) would be gazetted for public comment and engagement on Friday, 25 November.
In a statement on Wednesday, Eskom said it supports the development of a long term energy and electricity plan for the country.
The purpose of the IEP is to provide a roadmap of the future energy landscape for South Africa, which guides the future energy infrastructure investments and policy development. Two of the objectives identified in the IEP is minimising the cost of energy and promoting the creation of jobs and localisation.
"We will register as an interested and affected party and submit our comments on the plans through the formal process," Eskom's Group Executive for Generation Matshela Koko said.
Minister Joemat-Pettersson said the Department of Energy will publish the updated version of the IRP on Friday. The new document updates the current IRP 2013-30 plan. IRP2010 places specific emphasis on broadening electricity supply technologies to include gas, imports, nuclear, biomass and renewables (wind, solar and hydro) in response to the country's future electricity needs and to reduce CO² emissions.
Eskom's current plans are closely aligned to a base case scenario that takes South Africa's carbon budget into consideration and annual constraints to bringing renewables onto the grid.
"This scenario requires the first nuclear unit by 2026. To this end, Eskom has indicated that it will go ahead with the request for proposals (RFP) for nuclear by the end of December 2016, as all indications show 2026 is feasible to deliver the first unit.
