Publications
Partners
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.
Independent power producers hoping will now be able to make use of a newly-launched "one-stop shop" that will significantly cut red tape and speed up processes, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has said.
The minister on Sunday updated media on the status of the energy action plan announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July 2022.
The "single point of entry" would accelerate the connection of renewables to the grid and eliminate the need for project sponsors to "be all over the place", Ramokgopa said - for example, needing separate applications and approvals from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Water Affairs, Public Works and Infrastructure, to name a few.
Instead, numerous licencing applications can now be submitted under a single bespoke window, he said.
This is one of a number of administrative steps that have been taken over the past year in a bid to alleviate ongoing load shedding. On Friday, Nersa announced that it had approved an operating licence for the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTC) - a crucial step in Eskom's unbundling process. It has yet to approve transmission, trading and import/ export licences.
Previous steps include the removal of licencing requirements for projects sized up to 100 MW.
Ramokgopa also gave an update on a recent fire at Grootvlei power station, which took its Unit 2 offline. Grootvlei - one of Eskom's oldest stations - has just three units, and Unit 2 was its only operational unit at the time of the fire.
The unit can deliver up to 190MW but was not operating at capacity.
According to Ramakgopa, however, had the fire not been arrested in time, the outcome would have been "catastrophic".
The spillage of fuel oil, combined with high temperatures, had caused a fire which damaged about 8 - 10km of cables.
By the end of next week, the unit is expected to be returned to service.
