The government’s “single-minded focus” on urgently implementing plans to address the energy crisis is making gains – with the end of load shedding “finally within reach”.<\/p>\n
This is according to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who delivered the State of the Nation Address at the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
The President said the government has a clear plan \u2013 the Energy Action Plan \u2013 implemented with “single-minded focus through the National Energy Crisis Committee”.<\/p>\n
“We have delivered on our commitments to bring substantial new power through private investment onto the grid, which is already helping to reduce load shedding. Last year, we implemented a significant debt relief package that will enable Eskom to invest in maintenance and transmission infrastructure and ensure its sustainability as we advance.<\/p>\n
“Since we revived our renewable energy programme five years ago, we have connected more than 2500 MW of solar and wind power to the grid with three times this amount already in procurement or construction,” he said.<\/p>\n
The amount of rooftop solar panels has also increased since the government implemented tax incentives and financial support.<\/p>\n
Regulatory reforms implemented by the government have also enabled private investment in electricity generation, enabling the development of more than 120 new private energy projects.<\/p>\n
“These phenomenal developments are driving the restructuring of our electricity sector in line with what many other economies have done to increase competitiveness and bring down prices.<\/p>\n
“Through all these actions, we are confident that the worst is behind us and the end of load shedding is finally within reach. But we are not stopping there,” President Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n
To further strengthen South Africa’s hand in energy security, some 14,000 km of new transmission lines are to be built in South Africa to connect renewable energy projects.<\/p>\n
“To ensure that we never face a similar crisis again, we are reforming our energy system to make it more competitive, sustainable and reliable. We will build more than 14,000 km of new transmission lines to accommodate renewable energy over the coming years,” he said.<\/p>\n
President Ramaphosa explained that to fast-track the building of the transmission lines, private investment in transmission infrastructure will be roped in “through a variety of innovative investment models”. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government’s “single-minded focus” on urgently implementing plans to address the energy crisis is making<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t