Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Agency of South Africa Phindile Masangane says an additional 3 000 megawatts of gas-generated electricity is expected to be added to the national electricity grid early next year.

She was speaking at the Africa Energy Week Conference in Cape Town as South Africa continues to be hit by rolling blackouts.

South Africa’s transition from coal-generated electricity to gas energy was one of the topics of discussion during day two of the African Energy Week conference in Cape Town.

Masangane says the additional 3 000 megawatts of gas-generated electricity which is expected to be added to the national electricity grid early next year, will help alleviate the impact of power cuts.

She says natural gas technologies are the fastest alternative that can be added to the grid.

“There is a large built programme between renewable and gas, so those capacities that have to be built and of the immediate of course. Our Minister has announced that we are going to procure, immediately, 3 000 megawatts of gas and we expect that to happen in the early part of the year.”

Minister of Energy Gwede Mantashe addressed the gathering yesterday:

Head of electricity at energy regulator, Nersa, Dennis Seemela says South Africa requires an energy mix that includes coal, gas and renewable energy.

He says the Department of Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan of 2019 should also be expedited.

Meemela says the plan will see additional energy sources added to the national energy grid over the coming years

“The input that I’ve made was to actually promote the implementation of the Integrated Resource Plan and as Nersa we are part of that value chain to promote the integrated resource plan and to make sure that it’s implemented. There are many lobbyists who believe there shouldn’t be anything else except renewable energy. No, it’s not supposed to be like that. It’s supposed to be an energy mix. Renewable is there. If I recall in the IRP, I think we’ve got about 6800 megawatts of renewable energy. That’s a lot. It’s even higher than gas, which is 3000.”

The conference is expected to conclude on Thursday.