Renewable energy proponent The Green Connection said President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address on dealing with the energy crisis on Monday did not mention his failure to sign into law a section of legislation which provides for the annual publication of an integrated energy plan.
The non-profit organisation, whose areas include climate change and renewable energy, was referring to section 6 of the National Energy Act of 2008. This section has not been gazetted into law by the president.
The section provides for the minister of mineral resources and energy to develop, review and publish the integrated energy plan in the gazette every year.
The section states that the plan must deal with issues relating to the supply, transformation, transport, storage and demand for energy in a way that accounts for, among others, security of supply and contribution of supply to socioeconomic development.
The strategic lead at the Green Connection, Liz McDaid, said there was nothing new from the president.
“We do not need laws to be broken and twisted to solve the energy crisis. We need those existing laws to be implemented and, in particular, if we want energy security in the long term, we need a plan and an integrated energy plan is allowed for in our legislation — it just needs the president to sign it into law,” McDaid said.
She said this was a glaring omission and something that Green Connection believed should have formed part of the president’s statement.
Green Connection, however, said it was pleased that the presidency had taken on the co-ordination role of resolving the energy crisis. But the organisation pointed out that this should have been the energy minister’s role.
Embracing green energy was just one of several propositions put forward by Ramaphosa on Monday on how the country could deal with the energy crisis.
Other interventions included increasing the budget for Eskom to allow it to do the needed maintenance to its plants, rehiring staff with integral skills who had left the power utility, helping the police tackle theft of Eskom infrastructure, getting help from independent power producers and neighbouring countries with surplus power, mobilising generators and educating the public on better electricity usage.
TimesLIVE
President should sign vital section of energy act into law, says renewable energy group
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Renewable energy proponent The Green Connection said President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address on dealing with the energy crisis on Monday did not mention his failure to sign into law a section of legislation which provides for the annual publication of an integrated energy plan.
The non-profit organisation, whose areas include climate change and renewable energy, was referring to section 6 of the National Energy Act of 2008. This section has not been gazetted into law by the president.
The section provides for the minister of mineral resources and energy to develop, review and publish the integrated energy plan in the gazette every year.
The section states that the plan must deal with issues relating to the supply, transformation, transport, storage and demand for energy in a way that accounts for, among others, security of supply and contribution of supply to socioeconomic development.
The strategic lead at the Green Connection, Liz McDaid, said there was nothing new from the president.
“We do not need laws to be broken and twisted to solve the energy crisis. We need those existing laws to be implemented and, in particular, if we want energy security in the long term, we need a plan and an integrated energy plan is allowed for in our legislation — it just needs the president to sign it into law,” McDaid said.
She said this was a glaring omission and something that Green Connection believed should have formed part of the president’s statement.
Green Connection, however, said it was pleased that the presidency had taken on the co-ordination role of resolving the energy crisis. But the organisation pointed out that this should have been the energy minister’s role.
Embracing green energy was just one of several propositions put forward by Ramaphosa on Monday on how the country could deal with the energy crisis.
Other interventions included increasing the budget for Eskom to allow it to do the needed maintenance to its plants, rehiring staff with integral skills who had left the power utility, helping the police tackle theft of Eskom infrastructure, getting help from independent power producers and neighbouring countries with surplus power, mobilising generators and educating the public on better electricity usage.
TimesLIVE
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