Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe addressed questions from members of Parliament’s National Council of Provinces on Tuesday regarding the government’s progress on the Energy Action Plan and load shedding in South Africa. DA MP Mlindi Nhanha had asked about the progress made on the government’s Energy Action Plan. South Africa has only had two days without load shedding this year, and up to 29 days of Stage 6 have been implemented thus far.
Mantashe said that load shedding “irritates society” and costs the economy, and that dealing with it has “got nothing to do with mobilising votes”. He noted that the Energy Action Plan, led by Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, focuses on improving the performance of coal-fired power stations, procuring emergency energy supply, importing power from neighbouring countries, and improving skills at Eskom.
Another important factor is increasing generation capacity from renewables. Mantashe hit back at claims that he was blocking renewable energy in the country, saying that under his leadership, the licence threshold on private power or embedded generation projects was removed. Nearly 2,600MW is to be added to the grid under Bid Window 5 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.
Bid Window 6 sought to add 4,200MW to the grid, but only 1,000MW of solar projects were named preferred bidders. This was largely because of a lack of grid capacity and not because Mantashe was delaying the rollout of renewables, he told Parliament.To overcome grid capacity challenges, Bid Window 7 will be region specific – where there is grid access.
As much as 5,000MW is to be procured through this bidding round. Bid Window 8 will similarly seek to procure 5,000MW, Mantashe said. Bloomberg previously reported that government wants to add 15 000MW of renewable energy to the grid.
In the same breath, Mantashe also defended the coal sector and continued reliance on it. He noted that it is a “healthy sector” yielding export returns. “We must actually protect it… Coal is available, and the quality of coal is good,” he said.
Mantashe also addressed reports that he and Ramokgopa are caught in a power struggle. City Press and its sister publication Rapport had reported that Mantashe’s powers in the energy sector would be curtailed now with an electricity minister appointed to deal with the energy crisis.
Citing sources, the reports indicated that a compromise was reached, allowing Mantashe to remain in charge of energy policy and procurement until next year’s election. Mantashe, however, dismissed claims of a struggle and said there was no fighting between him and Ramokgopa.
“Anyone who writes stories that say we are having a big fight imagines that fight. It does not exist,” said Mantashe.”The reality of the matter is that we want load shedding to be reduced and ultimately eradicated. That is all we want. We are all committed to that, all of us. We have not had any member of Cabinet resisting that,” Mantashe said.
Mboma Mboma