The South African Cabinet has appointed Eskom as the ”only” buyer of power from independent power producers.
Briefing the media on Thursday, the day after Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said the Cabinet had resolved that Eskom become the only buyer.
”Cabinet resolved that Eskom be designated as the single buyer of power from independent power producers [IPPs] in South Africa.
”Eskom will be responsible for ensuring that adequate generation capacity is made available and that 30% is derived from IPPs,” he said.
The policy, Maseko said, was meant to ensure that the responsibility and accountability for the construction of power-generation capacity was coordinated and provided certainty to the private providers.
”The introduction of the private sector into the power-generation sector will also allow production-cost benchmarking with the state utility, thereby ensuring that the lowest cost production of electricity is achieved,” he said.
Over the next 20 years, Eskom would build all nuclear power plants in South Africa and the IPPs would build more than 50% of all non-nuclear power plants.
The Minerals and Energy Department, Maseko said, would develop an integrated resource plan to define the magnitude of power-generation capacity needed to meet the country’s electricity demands. — Sapa