The Office of the President and organized industry will meet on August 1 to discuss progress under a previously announced partnership to jointly address the nation's energy challenges, following the Electricity Regulation Amendment ( ERA) bill to be passed within the 6th Congress. , transportation, crime and corruption crisis.
The bill was approved by the Cabinet on March 29th and was finally tabled in the Diet on July 20th, but no timetable has been set yet for its passage, with lawmakers expected to pass the bill before the 2024 elections. Some have expressed doubts that there will be enough time to consider the bill. .
But in a joint statement, the Office of the President and Organized Business identified the bill's passage as one of several “critical next steps” needed to restore trust.
The joint statement asserted that the ERA bill is critical to eliminating load shedding, promoting energy development, expanding transmission infrastructure, establishing a competitive electricity market, and attracting investment to the energy sector.
South African Energy Council CEO speaks at business report session after meeting with government james mckay It urges Congress to treat the ERA as “emergency” legislation because the bill “lays the foundation for unlocking confidence and direction for reforms that will enable greater investment.” Stated.
But the Democratic Alliance's shadow energy minister Kevin Mileham Questions about whether there will be enough time to process the bill in both the National Assembly (NA) and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) before the 2024 elections, which could be held as early as May was raised.
Expressing support for passing the bill, which he described as urgent and overdue, Mileham said: engineering news The NA will need to complete both public participation and its own deliberations by the end of Congress in late November or early December. This is to give the NCOP enough time to begin its own separate process between the resumption of parliament in February and the general election.
He noted that the public participation process for upstream oil resource development alone, which included public hearings in all nine states, took nearly eight months, and that NA's approval required intensive work throughout August. . Approval was required before NA could approve. NCOP can run its own processes.
He also pointed out that the ERA bill is not yet on the program of the Mineral Resources and Energy Portfolio Committee. “Therefore, I do not believe the ERA bill will pass in the current Congress,” Mileham said. engineering news.
Other power-related priorities outlined at the government-business meeting include:
- Completes the establishment of the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA). This is a move considered necessary to create a level playing field for power producers and enable greater investment in transmission infrastructure.and
- We fully operate a “one-stop shop” to expedite renewable energy projects. This includes ensuring the right capacity and systems are in place to expedite the approval of energy projects and reduce lead times to construction.
South Africa's National Energy Regulatory Authority, the highest decision-making body, approved NTCSA's 25-year transmission equipment license on July 27, but has not yet approved two other licenses required for new power operations. I refrained. Independent grid company.
Eskom formally welcomed the decision to approve the operating license for the transmission system, but noted that NTCSA had also applied for a trade license and an import/export license.
“Granting NTCSA the necessary operating license is one of the key dependencies required to enable NTCSA to operate,” Eskom said in a statement.
Two other dependencies include securing lender consent, which itself appears to be conditional on three license approvals. It also includes his appointment as an independent director of NTCSA, which will initially operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Eskom Holdings.
Ahead of the meeting with the companies, the Office of the President said it was troubled by the fact that only one NTCSA license had been approved.
“We are very concerned about that because all three licenses are required for NTCSA to operate and perform its intended functions,” the Office of the President said. sole masker This was stated at a press conference regarding the implementation of the Energy Action Plan.
“[Given] It is very important to have NTCSA fully operational. Our hope is that we can resolve this sooner rather than later and be able to introduce the remaining two licenses along with his other two conditions. [lender consent and an independent board]So, to ensure that there is no major delay in the establishment of the organization,” Masker added.
Mr McKay highlighted the importance of Eskom's unbundling process, describing it as a natural next step in the progress of the electricity supply industry.
“The fact that a transmission license has been issued is very positive,” he said, expressing confidence that other licenses will follow suit.
Businesses and government had not placed a particular priority on finding a solution to the dispute that arose over Eskom's interim grid queuing rules, but Mr Mackay said he would like to find an acceptable solution without precluding legal proceedings. It has become clear that there are ongoing movements behind the scenes. is also in progress.
Although G7 Renewables was unable to prevent Eskom from implementing the rules, the second part of the application, which deals with the rationality and legality of the rules, will be heard on September 11.
“I think there's been a lot of industry intervention behind the scenes since the beginning of the litigation, and there's been a lot of very positive technical effort and focus on this,” McKay revealed. did.
He reported that a specialized team from the National Energy Crisis Committee was working with Eskom to “restructure” the rules.
