Cape Town - The energy crisis has been in the spotlight since Eskom announced that the country would be plunged into the darkness of Stage 6 load shedding earlier this year.
This prompted the urgent establishment of the National Energy Crisis Committee to ensure the country’s energy security amid ongoing blackouts.
The committee has been doing this by reducing the amount of red tape that slowed down the procurement of independent power which would help alleviate current pressures on the national power grid, among others.
The latest news from the committee was released on Sunday.
It revealed that the electricity allocation under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) for Bid Window (BW) 6 had officially increased from 2 600MW to whopping 4 200MW.
“To clarify the procurement process currently under way: due to the urgency required to resolve the electricity supply crisis, the government decided to proceed with increasing wind allocation from 2 600MW to 3 200MW at this stage, in line with the second determination of 2020.
“Rather than delay this RFP for all requests to be approved, the government opted to issue the current RFP for 4 200MW as opposed to delaying the entire Bid Window,” the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) said.
A further announcement regarding the remaining 1 000MW of Solar PV was expected after the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa) process concluded regarding the concurrence of the new determination.
“At the end of this process, we aim to be adding a total of 5 200MW under BW 6 to the Grid. The government, through the ongoing urgent work of the National Energy Crisis Committee, remains on track to end load shedding and achieve energy security,” the GCIS said.
This news comes just after Eskom announced that Stage 4 load shedding had to be implemented from Saturday to replenish emergency reserves.
Even City-supplied customers felt the brunt of lead shedding this weekend as the load shedding mitigation unit of the Steenbras plant, which usually protects City customers from load shedding, was offline due to technical issues.
While Stage 4 would wrap up at 5am today, Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said Stage 3 would be implemented until 5am on Tuesday, whereafter Stage 2 would implemented until Friday.