The National Planning Commission (NPC) yesterday finally added its voice of concern about load shedding, and suggested that a state of emergency be declared to remove the red tape on building new power generation capacity.
“The most immediate priority is to ensure that new generation capacity is rapidly and urgently brought onto the grid, together with significant new storage capacity,” the NPC said.
A state of emergency was, according to recent reports, also among measures proposed by ANC National Executive Committee members at a meeting held over the weekend to deal with the Eskom crisis although the Department of Public Enterprises later denied that this was discussed.
The latest round of power outages has wreaked havoc on the economy, small businesses and on poor families, and was mainly the result of a strike by Eskom staffers who on Tuesday were granted a 7 percent annual increase among other benefits.
Eskom has warned that load shedding would continue being implemented at varying stages over the next few weeks before the power generation system could recover to pre-strike levels.
“At what ‘stage’ will the president feel prompted to speak to the people of South Africa? At what ‘stage’ will he step in, step up, and provide the urgent solutions this swiftly unfolding calamity deserves?” the Inkatha Freedom Party said yesterday.
The Democratic Alliance’s Ghaleb Cachalia said stage 6 load shedding has crippled large and small businesses, and countless families were sitting in the dark with some already without food and unable to stay warm.
The NPC said yesterday its evidence suggested it was possible to address the power shortages within 24 months if 10 000MW of new generation capacity was rapidly constructed and commissioned, as well as 5 000MW of storage capacity.
Solar and wind power projects could be built rapidly within two to three years.
“Ending load shedding needs to become a unifying national goal for the whole country and all stakeholders. Everyone should do their part to achieve this overriding single goal. For this to happen, the declaration of an ‘energy emergency’ is required that will make it possible to override some of the red tape preventing the acceleration of delivery of new generation capacity,” the NPC said in a statement.
Some of the red tape measures it suggested include that the 100MW ceiling be removed, because Eskom’s grid code and grid connection authorisation process was sufficient to regulate this growing market.
Another suggestion was that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) registration process that delayed implementation of projects should be scrapped, and replaced with an online registration procedure for database purposes only.
Environmental and water use approvals needed to be streamlined, to take advantage of the Renewable Energy Development Zone framework that allows for fast-tracking of approvals.
There also needed to be a temporary exemption from local content requirements for construction and commissioning of new generation and storage capacity due to come online in the next 36 months.
“In parallel, key stakeholders should reach a formal agreement that strikes a balance between short-term importation of components with the need for phasing in upstream industrialisation over the medium- to long-term. Finance would also need to be mobilised for for short- and longer-term investments in new projects,”
The NPC said the goals of the National Development Plan (NDP) could not be achieved without energy security. South Africa has suffered load shedding since 2008 and it had constrained many developmental policies and strategies, the NPC said.
edward.west@inl.co.za
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