Eskom welcomes the amendment of Section 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) to allow the operation of a generation facility with a capacity of up to 100MW without obtaining a licence from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa). This is a progressive step that will – over time – greatly assist in the effort to provide reliable and sufficient electricity for the economy while creating space for Eskom to conduct much needed repairs on its infrastructure.

As Eskom continues to implement the reliability maintenance recovery (RMR) programme to achieve operational sustainability, many electricity generating units are taken offline for planned maintenance which leaves the national power system constrained.

Therefore, customer-funded capacity alongside the contribution by independent power producers (IPPs) will greatly assist in addressing the immediate supply/demand gap and reduce the risk of loadshedding over time. This amendment, together with Eskom’s own efforts to repurpose and repower our ageing power stations, will assist to reduce the South Africa’s electricity supply gap.

Source: ESKOM