South Africa is experiencing an existential problem in a democratic state –those were the first words the new Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, uttered at the Future Energy Show on Tuesday.
The minister was speaking about the major energy crisis affecting South Africa.
Ramokgopa was the keynote speaker at the Huawei Fusion Solar Forum in Sandton.
He outlined what the government planned to do to address the energy crisis and how the private sector would be involved.
Minister Ramokgopa said that there was no doubt that Huawei would play a major role but additionally he was hoping that more private players would be a part of addressing South Africa’s energy needs.
He noted that South Africa was short of 6000MW.
What are his main objectives? Ramokgopa said his main aim was to fix Eskom and improve the availability of the current electricity supply.
He said he wanted to enable private investment in new electricity generation capacity. It should therefore be clear that businesses should look at how they could assist in this process.
Ramokgopa said the government was committed to “accelerate the procurement of new energy capacity from renewable options, gas and storage”.
It should be noted that Ramokgopa wants to also unleash businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar.
DELIVERY WORKSTREAMS
The government was committed to improving Eskom’s plant performance and strengthening the national power grid, according to the minister.
This would happen by the government and the private sector helping in accelerating new power generation and building capacity.
This is a developing story...
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