South Africa has unveiled a plan to end load-shedding, with the aim to stop the state-owned power utility Eskom’s operational instability and to introduce new capacity to the gid to close an estimated supply shortfall of about 6,000 MW. It includes a doubling in the allocation for Bid Window Six (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), with a bid submission in August 2022, from 2,600 MW to 5,200 MW. Eskom will also lease more grid-ready land to facilitate further private projects in addition to the 1,800 MW private distributed investment expected following the first leasing round. A request for proposals for battery storage should be issued by September 2022, and a further request for gas power thereafter. Finally, the country will lift the 100 MW license-exemption cap on distributed generation plants being developed by miners and heavy industry. South Africa will also reduce the regulatory requirements for solar projects in areas of low and medium environmental sensitivity and establish a single point of entry for all energy applications, to ensure coordination of approval processes across government.
Eskom will be authorised to buy power for a period of two to three years from enterprises that have surplus electricity available to sell to the grid. The company will also seek to buy excess power from neighbouring countries in the Southern African Power Pool, including Bostwana and Zambia, and pursue the roll-out of energy efficiency retrofits to reduce demand on the grid as well as demand management solutions, which could lower or shift demand by as much as 600 MW, particularly over peak periods. Over the medium term, South Africa intends to find a solution to Eskom ZAR400bn (US$23.7bn) debt burden and create an independent transmission company, unbundled from Eskom’s generation and distribution units by the end of 2022. The entire plan will be supervised by a National Energy Crisis Committee, comprising all relevant Ministries, departments and agencies.
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