Standard Offer to acquire electricity programme
Eskom launched a Standard Offer Programme to purchase up to 1,000MW of power from companies that have existing generation capacity for a period of three years, as well as an Emergency Generation Programme to purchase additional power when the grid is constrained. The Eskom board is considering increasing the existing 1,000MW allocation for its Standard…
read more >>ERA Bill/Act
The Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill was signed by the President in August 2024 and came into effect on 1 January 2025. It contains numerous reforms and initiatives to enable the transformation of the country’s electricity into a competitve market under a Transmission System Operator. Full implementation, however, is being held up by opposition from municipalities,…
read more >>Energy Security Bill
This legislation is backed by National Treasury and the National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom), which sits in the Presidency, forming part of the Operation Vulindlela agenda.
read more >>Raising cap on self-generation to 100MW threshold
The declaration made by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 10 June 2021 liberalised a major portion of the electricity supply sector. Ramaphosa raised South Africa’s 10MW regulatory cap on electricity self-generation, also known as “embedded generation”, to 100MW. This enabled private companies to move forward with long-delayed projects without having to worry about over-burdensome licensing requirements….
read more >>Removal of 100MW threshold
The 100MW cap on private generation projects was removed in July 2022 leading to an increased number of private generation projects. This move has increased competitiveness in pricing as, together with wheeling arrangements, private operators can now build and supply direct to customers. Private generation projects registered with Nersa have surpassed the 7GW markTo date…
read more >>Additional renewable energy development zones
In March 2021, then Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy signed a notice in the Government Gazette designating three more geographic areas as renewable energy development zones (REDZs): Emalahleni, Klerksdorp and Beaufort West. They join the eight zones that were earlier designated: Overberg, Komsberg, Cookhouse, Stormberg, Kimberley, Vryberg, Upington and Springbok, bringing the total…
read more >>DFFE EIA permitting regime change
This reform aims to speed up environmental impact asssessments for renewable energy plants. A proponent must ask Eskom for a consent letter attesting to the fact that its facility’s planned design will not unduly impede access to transmission or distribution facilities. If it receives no response in 45 days, Eskom is deemed to have no…
read more >>Eskom land use programme
In April 2022, Eskom launched its land lease programme – a response to President Ramaphosa’s call for an “ambitious, bold and urgent response to the energy crisis”. The plan was to lease 36,000 hectares of Eskom-owned land in Mpumalanga to private sector companies that wish to develop their own power generation plants using renewable technologies….
read more >>Enabling municipalities to procure excess electricity from households
Municipalities are allowed to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar). This requires appropriate equipment to allow for net metering (that can track electricity fed to the grid as well as taken from it). Cape Town has introduced a net metering scheme in 2023 but to date is the only municipality to…
read more >>Gas BW1.5 (Richards Bay, Phakwe)
Following environmental authorisation approval by Minister Barbara Creecy in 2022 for the 2,000MW Phakwe gas power plant in Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone, two civil society groups, Groundwork and South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), filed for judicial review.
read more >>