The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Mr Gwede Mantashe (MP) welcomes the concurrence by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to the second Section 34 Ministerial Determination issued in February 2020.

This is another milestone that gives effect to commitments made by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2020 State of the Nation Address (SONA) to increase generation capacity, and ensure security of energy supply to society rapidly and significantly.

The Section 34 Determination enables the Department to undertake procurement of additional electricity capacity in line with the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2019). This will open-up various Bid Windows (BW) including BW 5 of renewable energy.

The capacity determined is 6 800 megawatts (MW) to be generated from renewable energy sources (Photovoltaic and Wind), 513 MW to be generated from storage, 3 000 MW to be generated from gas, and 1 500 MW to be generated from coal. In total this will enable the development of an additional 11 813 MW of power from the year 2022.

The 11 813 MW is in addition to the 2 000 MW already being procured under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Programme (RMIPPP) for which a Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued to the market during August 2020.

Work has commenced with key stakeholders including the buyer to firm up on the framework critical for the bankability of the programme.

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Issued by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy

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