The national energy crisis committee said on Friday plans to challenge the declaration of a national state of disaster will not stop implementation of the energy action plan.
The national state of disaster was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his state of the nation address in parliament last week, along with other interventions, to address the power crisis such as the establishment of a ministry of electricity in the presidency.
The gazetting of the declaration was signed by the head of the National Disaster Management Centre Elias Sithole and minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
Earlier this week, the DA announced it would challenge the declaration, saying it preferred a “ring-fenced” state of disaster focused solely on Eskom rather than a national one.
During a virtual press briefing, head of project management in the private office of the president Rudi Dicks said it was not intended to stop the national energy crisis committee from implementing its plan to address the load-shedding crisis.
“Whether there are court cases or not, there is an energy action plan, and we are implementing that energy action plan whether there is a legal challenge to the national state of disaster or not. I think it would be quite mischievous of us to stop,” said Dicks.
Asked when the state of disaster regulations would be published and announced, Dicks said they were being finalised by the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs and should be released soon.
“We want to have a clear line of sight. We want to address this soon and get rid of the cumbersome red tape. The state of disaster is designed to provide that leeway so that we can have that implementation.”
Dicks said in line with the national state of disaster, a request for proposals (RFP) for a supplier and support in battery storage technology was concluded and should go out to the public by the end of February.
“We have been trying to get this out as early as last year. We have come to a point where it is being issued and we expect a positive response to the RFP as well,” he said.
He said the national state of disaster also meant Eskom got exemptions from new generation regulations to generate power without the usual hindrances. Eskom is finalising 400MW through standard offer purchase and emergency purchase mechanisms, he added.
“The operationalisation of the national transmission company depends on getting a licence. That has now got the nod for Nersa for us to publish those licence applications. That is important for us because the timeline for that operationalisation is March 31.”
Government Communication and Information System acting head Michael Currin said the national energy crisis committee and the government respected the law and would continue implementing the plan in line with the national state of disaster, as it was declared by the book.
“Let’s cross that bridge [litigation and court rulings] when we get to it. The government has acted within the law. For now, we have the urgent energy action plan that is the top order of government’s business, and the aggressive implementation of that plan is what we are about now,” said Currin.
Eskom acting head of generation Thomas Conradie said Eskom had a busy week due to heavy rains affecting power stations east of Mpumalanga. He said total unplanned unavailability is at a high 17,000MW, forcing Eskom to continue implementing load-shedding through the week.
“We have been working to improve what we call rain readiness so that we can respond to a wet situation. We are doing fairly well at managing the situation. It did, however, force us to see what we call load losses, where we have to run lower loads,” said Conradie.
Conradie said Eskom would prioritise dispatching diesel at stations over the weekend as pump storage appeared to improve.
Dicks said a system similar to the R20bn loan guarantee bounce-back scheme to banks supporting SMMEs during the Covid-19 national lockdown was being considered to incentivise households shifting to solar energy.
He added that 300MW of power had been secured from the Southern African power pool since last year. Discussions with the governments of Botswana, Mozambique, and Zambia for an additional 1,000MW were ongoing.
TimesLIVE
Legal challenge against state of disaster will not stall action plan — energy chief
Image: Alaister Russell
The national energy crisis committee said on Friday plans to challenge the declaration of a national state of disaster will not stop implementation of the energy action plan.
The national state of disaster was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his state of the nation address in parliament last week, along with other interventions, to address the power crisis such as the establishment of a ministry of electricity in the presidency.
The gazetting of the declaration was signed by the head of the National Disaster Management Centre Elias Sithole and minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
Earlier this week, the DA announced it would challenge the declaration, saying it preferred a “ring-fenced” state of disaster focused solely on Eskom rather than a national one.
During a virtual press briefing, head of project management in the private office of the president Rudi Dicks said it was not intended to stop the national energy crisis committee from implementing its plan to address the load-shedding crisis.
“Whether there are court cases or not, there is an energy action plan, and we are implementing that energy action plan whether there is a legal challenge to the national state of disaster or not. I think it would be quite mischievous of us to stop,” said Dicks.
Asked when the state of disaster regulations would be published and announced, Dicks said they were being finalised by the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs and should be released soon.
“We want to have a clear line of sight. We want to address this soon and get rid of the cumbersome red tape. The state of disaster is designed to provide that leeway so that we can have that implementation.”
Dicks said in line with the national state of disaster, a request for proposals (RFP) for a supplier and support in battery storage technology was concluded and should go out to the public by the end of February.
“We have been trying to get this out as early as last year. We have come to a point where it is being issued and we expect a positive response to the RFP as well,” he said.
He said the national state of disaster also meant Eskom got exemptions from new generation regulations to generate power without the usual hindrances. Eskom is finalising 400MW through standard offer purchase and emergency purchase mechanisms, he added.
“The operationalisation of the national transmission company depends on getting a licence. That has now got the nod for Nersa for us to publish those licence applications. That is important for us because the timeline for that operationalisation is March 31.”
Government Communication and Information System acting head Michael Currin said the national energy crisis committee and the government respected the law and would continue implementing the plan in line with the national state of disaster, as it was declared by the book.
“Let’s cross that bridge [litigation and court rulings] when we get to it. The government has acted within the law. For now, we have the urgent energy action plan that is the top order of government’s business, and the aggressive implementation of that plan is what we are about now,” said Currin.
Eskom acting head of generation Thomas Conradie said Eskom had a busy week due to heavy rains affecting power stations east of Mpumalanga. He said total unplanned unavailability is at a high 17,000MW, forcing Eskom to continue implementing load-shedding through the week.
“We have been working to improve what we call rain readiness so that we can respond to a wet situation. We are doing fairly well at managing the situation. It did, however, force us to see what we call load losses, where we have to run lower loads,” said Conradie.
Conradie said Eskom would prioritise dispatching diesel at stations over the weekend as pump storage appeared to improve.
Dicks said a system similar to the R20bn loan guarantee bounce-back scheme to banks supporting SMMEs during the Covid-19 national lockdown was being considered to incentivise households shifting to solar energy.
He added that 300MW of power had been secured from the Southern African power pool since last year. Discussions with the governments of Botswana, Mozambique, and Zambia for an additional 1,000MW were ongoing.
TimesLIVE
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