Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has revealed that there are 66GW of projects in various stages of development that will be connected to the grid as part of measures to end load shedding.
Ramokgopa said the projects were being implemented across the country.
They were renewable energy projects, and the government had committed to use various sources of energy to end power cuts.
Ramokgopa, briefing the media on Friday, said these were key interventions related to the energy action plan announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year.
He said the projects indicated the types of green technologies that were being used.
“You can see that there is a significant amount of pipeline. It’s a healthy pipeline of projects. When the study was conducted just to understand from project developers what sits in their pipeline, there is 66GW of wind and solar projects that are in development across the country,” said Ramokgopa.
However, he said that, for these projects to be successfully implemented, the grid needed to be strengthened.
Connection to the grid was quite important, because it would resolve the energy crisis in the country.
There were two things that needed to be done concerning the grid, and they included expanding the lines and strengthening the grid.
Ramokgopa said they would continue to ensure that they improved the performance of the country’s power stations through various measures that were being taken.
This will be a difficult winter, but measures were in place to ensure energy supply.
He said demand had not reached its peak yet, but they were ready for when that happened.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Current Affairs