- South Africa’s newly appointed energy and electricity minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa wants to procure 2500MW of nuclear power for the country to ensure energy security and sovereignty.ย
- Ramokgopa told theย Sunday Timesย newspaper on the weekend, that his ministry plans to secure approval from Treasury by the end of August.ย
- Ramokgopa gazetted a determination to procure 2500MW of new generation nuclear energy underย the Electricity Regulation Act back in January this year.ย ย Link to the full gazetted determinationย HERE
- The nuclear procurement will be on an engineering procurement and construction (EPC) basis.
In December 2023, Ramokgopa said that the country needs additional generation capacity, and the Eskom fleet was ageing.ย ย โWe are triggering a procurement process starting with a demand profile and gazetting. We are going out to get that additional 2 500MW of nuclear capacity to ensure energy security and sovereignty. Nuclear energy is the cheapest, safest and most reliable technology,” he said.
Work has reached an advanced stage, and a team is working on a deal and finalising the procurement structure for the project, Ramokgopa told the Sunday Times.ย
Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI) Executive Director Francesca de Gasparis says, โThe announcement that the electricity minister will be procuring 2500MW new nuclear energy has been met with disbelief by civil society. All the independent modelling shows that nuclear energy is neither affordable nor needed in our energy mix now or in the future. We know electricity baseload does not need nuclear energy and in the absence of a finalised and fully reviewed IRP2023, todayโs announcement by government seems to be motivated by greed, not need. During the question time this morning, queries about the true costs associated with nuclear energy were met with non-answers. Read moreย
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The country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was forced to form a Government of National Unity (GNU) after losing majority vote in the recently held national elections. He merged the ministries of electricity and energy and appointed Ramokgopa as the new head while theย Deputy Minister of Electricity and Energy is Samantha Graham from the Democratic Alliance (DA).ย Graham has served as shadow minister to Ramokgopa since April 2023 in the Presidency.
The Democratic Alliance, an opposition party in South Africa, has served court papers on Ramokgopa and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) in relation to their s34 determination to procure 2500Mw of new nuclear power generation. They claim the determination is invalid. Read more
In the new GNU, the Presidency has confirmed that the shareholder representative of Eskom will be Minister of Energy and Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
The move is significant as it aligns the countryโs energy sector under one dedicated roof for the first time. This will allow a more co-ordinated approach in dealing with the country’s energy transition by matching the country’s energy needs with the challenges that Eskom faces in the form new power generation and transmission procurement, rectifying theย flawed Draft 2023 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) plus devising a proper and legally compliant Integrated Energy Plan. Ramokgopa now has full authority to procure new generation capacity for the country.
The funding decision to procure 2500MW of nuclear energy capacity however, rests with Treasury who are hamstrung financially. Eskom has unsustainable debt of over R400 billion and currently relies on tax payer bailouts nearing R500 billion to stay afloat and keep the 40000 strong workforce employed. Read more ย
In March Eskom signed a human centric training agreement with Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation. Read more
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
