President Ramaphosa has announced measures to rapidly and significantly increase generation capacity outside of Eskom.
Delivering his State Of The Nation Address on Thursday, he spoke at length about the government’s plans to restructure the country’s electricity industry.
However, he said as Eskom works to restore its operational capabilities, the government will be implementing measures that will fundamentally change the trajectory of energy generation in our country.
This includes giving effect to the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 enabling the development of additional grid capacity from renewable energy, natural gas, hydropower, battery storage, and coal.
"The National Energy Regulator will continue to register small scale distributed generation for own use of under 1 MW, for which no licence is required".
But, Ramaphosa cautioned that “in order for Eskom to undertake the fundamental maintenance necessary to improve the reliability of supply, load-shedding will remain a possibility for the immediate future.”
The President said the government’s social partners organised under the National Economic Development and Labour Council met over the past two weeks to agree on the principles of a social compact on electricity.
"The social partners - trade unions, business, community, and government - are committed to mobilising funding to address Eskom's financial crisis in a financially sustainable manner," he said.
"They would like to do this in a manner that does not put workers' pensions at risk and that does not compromise the integrity of the financial system."
