South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the government is addressing electricity shortages by improving Eskom's power station performance and delaying decommissioning of outdated coal-fired power plants to reduce blackouts. Eskom is South Africa's state-owned electricity company.
In a statement released on Monday, Ramaphosa said he acknowledges the need to meet the country's commitment to reduce emissions by 2030, but the process of decommissioning older coal-fired power stations may need to be re-examined temporarily to address the electricity supply shortfall, while also taking into account the health and environmental impact of emissions.
“The process of re-examining our time frames is not a reversal of our position on the just energy transition. Other countries have had to do the same in recent years without deviating from their long-term shift to renewable energy sources,” he said.
The president’s statement comes after electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa recommended on Saturday that Eskom delays the decommissioning of its ageing coal-fired power stations to help minimise blackouts, adding that this did not mean the country would abandon its climate commitments under the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) plan.
State-owned Eskom is implementing rolling blackouts of about 10 hours a day as it struggles to meet electricity demand.
“We are not moving away from the net-zero pact. We are committed to that and the JETP project,” Ramokgopa said. “What we are simply doing is that we need to ensure that the lights are on, as we are still committing ourselves to that decarbonisation agenda.”
The United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union have pledged a combined $8.5 billion investment to back South Africa’s plan to phase out fossil fuel use, but President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the total cost could prove ten times higher.
South Africa is the world’s 12th biggest emitter of climate-warming gases and is heavily reliant on coal - the most polluting fossil fuel - for electricity generation.
The country’s electricity crunch has been years in the making, a product of delays in building new coal-fired power stations, corruption in coal supply contracts, criminal sabotage and failures to ease up regulation to enable private providers to swiftly bring renewable energy on tap.
The NEC, which is meeting over the weekend, has discussed other proposals to deal with the electricity shortage, including procuring more diesel to run open-cycle gas turbines, opening a rolling bid window for renewable energy and importing 1,000 megawatts from Mozambique, Ramokgopa said.
