- South Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Mr Gwede Mantashe (MP) yesterday gazetted an amended version of Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act, 2006 (Act 4 of 2006).
- The schedule exempts – under certain circumstances – categories of generation facilities and resellers from the requirement to hold a generation licence for projects under one megawatt.
In his State of the Nation address (2020), HE President Cyril Ramaphosa announced measures government will take to rapidly and significantly change the trajectory of energy generation in our country. These measures included the registration of small-scale distributed generation for own use of under one megawatt (1MW), for which licencing is not required.
To give effect to the above commitment, the amendment of Schedule 2 further clarifies the requirements for generation for own use for facilities of under 1MW. The schedule exempts – under certain circumstances – categories of generation facilities and resellers from the requirement to hold a generation licence.
The Integrated Resource Plan 2019 (IRP2019) makes provision for distributed generation and therefore generation for own use of 1MW and above. This inclusion has removed the need for a Ministerial approval for deviation from the IRP before NERSA can process a generation license application. To this end, the regulatory hurdles previously experienced have been addressed according to the department.
Link to amended version of Schedule 2 HERE
Bryan Groenendaal
