SA’s energy move welcomed will Nersa be able to keep up?

Five to 10 license applications per year will be required to be processed by energy regulator Nersa, whose capacity to process them is being questioned.

The South African Wind Energy Association (Sawea) is one of many that welcomed the move, saying the initial cap of 10MW was way too small.

The surprise move by President Cyril Ramaphosa to increase the generation threshold for companies to produce electricity without a license from one megawatt (MW) to 100MW has drawn widespread praise.

The announcement to raise the cap as set out in Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act by Ramaphosa, in a hastily called media briefing, was welcomed by business and independent power producers (IPPs) in particular.

“This amendment will go a long way to unlocking embedded generation to enable security of supply, investment, and growth,” says Business Unity South Africa (Busa) CEO Cas Coovadia.

Aside from offering further energy security, Coovadia says it will also go some way to creating jobs.

“Busa believes that upwards of 16 000 direct jobs can be created based on a 50MW threshold. Job creation is likely to be significantly higher based on 100MW.

We are confident that the economies of scale unlocked by 100MW will likely enable further investment, job creation and development of local industrial capacity.”

The South African Wind Energy Association (Sawea) also welcomed the move, saying the initial cap of 10MW was way too small.

Read the full story on: citizen.co.za.