/ 20 May 2009

New minister outlines energy priorities

Newly appointed Energy Minister Dipuo Peters on Wednesday outlined her short- to medium-term priorities for the sector.

Her address to a power conference in Cape Town was meant to be her debut speech as minister, but it was eventually delivered on her behalf after a lengthy delay, as she was attending the new Cabinet’s first meeting at Tuynhuys.

The government would continue to strive for universal access to energy, with special emphasis on the rural poor, she said.

”This will not only cover the electricity supply infrastructure and hardware, but also the operational cost associated with the poor households.

”Regarding the latter, we will work closely with National Treasury and municipalities to make it happen within our available resources,” Peters said.

Because the South African energy sector was dominated by coal, there was also a need to speed up the use of renewable energy technologies for all consumer categories.

The published Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (Refit) would help to implement, on a larger scale, greener and diversified energy, such as wind and small hydro schemes. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa would be encouraged to finalise the determination of the outstanding Refit for the remaining renewable energy sources.

On energy efficiency, Peters said this would remain ”one of our low-hanging fruits to reap”. ”We must continue to work on existing programmes, but still ensure that there is improved equity in the allocation of limited resources, while focusing on the high-load municipal centres.

”Ultimately, energy efficiency will have to be legislated. South Africans must be able to internalise energy efficiency in all their existence,” she said.

Nuclear, cleaner fossil, and renewable energy capacity would all be used for new generation capacity. Referring to the nuclear programme, temporarily placed on hold last year due to the global economic turmoil, Peters said a watch would be kept on the costs to make sure ”we have our foot in the door and be ready when the opportunity presents itself”.

The global economic slowdown should be viewed as a short-term scenario and the energy sector needed to plan carefully to allow it to respond quickly to the needs of a growing economy, she said. — Sapa