Government updates on implementation of Energy Action Plan

Head of the National Energy Crisis Committee, Rudi Dicks, says Eskom has received approval to be exempted from the new generation regulations. This will allow them to do emergency procurement and a number of other interventions.

Dicks has given an update on government’s implementation of the Energy Action Plan announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa to solve the energy crisis.

In response to the severe impact of load shedding, Ramaphosa announced a slew of measures in July last year to add new generation capacity to the grid as quickly as possible.

Dicks says they are also excited about the announcements that will be made by the finance minister during his budget speech next week, in support of rooftop PV and solar installations.

“We don’t have to be sold on this in any particular way, we know that this is one of the quickest ways to try and ensure that we get, you know, both households and businesses off the grid, or partially off the grid to be able to alleviate and that’s going to be an important part of you of course. Now, the success of that is depending on whether these incentives or subsidies or any form of fiscal support, that’s there.”

The national energy crisis committee says in the coming week the first phase of the one stop-shop for applicants interested in generation projects will be launched.

“And this is going to be quite critical, we started this work last year already, we were able to streamline and reduce or eliminate many of the red tape. This is moving pretty, fast and well. This is a partnership with the private sector, and we brought in the World Bank also to support us building on the one stop shop principle that has already been there. And so, we see seeing that going forward.”

Energy Action Plan

Rudi Dicks says they will forge ahead with the Energy Action Plan despite ongoing court cases on the national state of disaster announcement.

“We have an Energy Action Plan that has been announced. And we’re in the process of implementing that Energy Action Plan. That’s not dependent on, you know, where the parties are taking us to court relevant to a state of disaster or anything else, we will continue to proceed, as we have done right now. And as we make progress, I think it would be it would be, slightly, you know, mischievous, if we have to stop, because there are pending court cases related to a state of disaster, we have an energy problem to resolve.”

Dicks says frameworks and guidelines around how distributors can be able to develop themselves will be quite critical. He says issues around technical expertise and skills are also being pushed forward with a sense of urgency.

SONA 2023 debate | Government will not change its National Energy Action Plan: Ramaphosa