South Africa
Government’s plans to procure additional power to be discussed in Parliament─── 09:18 Tue, 03 Aug 2021
Various issues regarding government’s plans to procure additional power from independent power producers are expected to be discussed in Parliament on Tuesday afternoon.
Government launched the Risk Mitigation IPP Procurement Programme in August 2020.
The Risk Mitigation programme aims to, amongst others, procure 2 000 megawatts of electricity to meet the immediate supply gap.
Parliament’s Mineral Resources and Energy Committee will hear opinions on the matter on Tuesday and also discuss the processes to be followed in implementing the programme.
It is also hoped the programme will assist the country on the road to economic recovery following the impact of load-shedding and rising electricity prices.
Meanwhile, Eskom’s Medupi coal power station in Limpopo has finally reached commercial operation.
Eskom says Medupi has 50 years of planned operational life, but there are still glaring concerns about cost overruns counted into hundreds of billions of rands.
However, the power station will only reliably deliver power to the national grid at full capacity in the next 24 months.
