Question NW1942 to the Minister in The Presidency for Electricity

Reply:

The Energy Action Plan (EAP), announced in July 2022 remains government’s overarching strategy to tackle the energy crisis and to attain energy security.

Our set of interventions are buttressed on the following pillars.

• Fix Eskom and improve the availability of existing supply.
• Enable and accelerate private investment in generation capacity.
• Accelerate procurement of new capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage;
• Unleash businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar and other demand side management progammes.
• Fundamentally transform the electricity sector to achieve long-term energy security

These interventions are geared to ensure the Country is safely navigated out of the immediate crisis of load shedding and our energy demand and supply is harmonized. The roll out of an aggressive national demand side management campaign will further help stabilize demand with the immediate generation capacity constraints, and in the medium-term additional emergency energy will be introduced through the uptake of surplus energy within the South African energy pool.

The Ministry continues to work with Energy Intensive Users, the renewable energy sector Eskom, and other stakeholders across the energy value chain to ensure that beyond the immediate crisis, in the medium to long term, energy security is restored by increasing production in line with the energy-mix profile set out in the Integrated Resource Plan, and the strengthening and expansion of the national transmission infrastructure as codified in the Transmission Development Plan.