South Africa’s beleaguered power utility, Eskom, has welcomed the new energy plan as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, saying the new measures would give a new lease of life to the national electricity producer, APA learnt on Thursday.
Ramaphosa’s plan to remove limits to private sector investments in electricity generation would help unlock investments and create jobs during the construction of the projects, while helping to lower the cost of electricity in the long-term, Eskom said.
“Eskom has significantly shortened the time required for independent power producers (IPP) to obtain cost estimate letters and budget quotes for grid access, and is committed to optimising this process even further,” the power utility said.
According to Eskom, the power utility was looking forward to playing its part in the rapid and effective implementation of the president’s plan where, among other things, the IPPs were now allowed to produce up to 100 megawatts to sell them to the energy producer.
In this regard, energy firm said it would collaborate with government, regulators, labour and the private sector to bring an end to load shedding soon by also buying excess power from producers like mines and other firms.
“As the president announced, Eskom has already released land with grid connections for long-term leases by independent power producers — with more to follow soon,” it added in a statement.
According to the power utility, the reforms the president announced would go a long way towards easing the current power generation constraints the country has been grappling with in the past 14 years.
The measures would also accelerate the end of load shedding and expand the electricity generation industry in South Africa through structural changes, Eskom said.
NM/as/APA