In reponse the the country’s energy crisis which is crippling the economy, South Africa’s energy regulator, NERSA, has received three section 34 determinations from the Minister of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) for the procurement of the following capacities:
- up to 1000 megawatts (MW) of new generation capacity from a range of energy producers in the region, which will either be utilities from host countries or independent power producers that are legally operating within the host countries;
- up to 2000 megawatts (MW) of new generation capacity from a range of energy technologies/sources in accordance with the short-term risk mitigation capacity allocated under the heading “Other” for the years 2025 to 2028, in Table 5 of the Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity 2019-2030 (published under Government Notice No. 1360 of 18 October 2019 in Government Gazette 42784) (“the IRP 2019”);
- up to 800MW megawatts (MW) of new generation capacity from a range of energy technologies/sources in accordance with the Emergency Generation Procurement Programme allocated under the heading “Other” for the years 2029 to 2030, in Table 5 of the Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity 2019-2030 (published under Government Notice No. 1360 of 18 October 2019 in Government Gazette 42784) (“the IRP 2019”); and 344.5MW megawatts (MW) of new generation capacity from the following technologies: 194.5MW from Solar PV and 150MW from Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).
According to section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act, 2006, NERSA is required to appropriately apply its regulatory reviews and make a decision prior to the conclusion of the determination process by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy. The consultation papers are available on NERSA’s website at www.nersa.org.za under ‘Electricity/Consultation/Notices’. Stakeholders and members of the public are requested to provide written comments on the ministerial determination.
The written comments must be submitted separately to NERSA for the attention of Mr Mondli Shozi on email: irp-procurement.techrange@nersa.org.za
The closing date for comments is 15 March 2023.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
