Business Day

New priorities with lights on

Energy transmissi­on, market reform, municipal utilities and new energy generation will top the list of priorities for the second phase of the national energy crisis committee (Necom) as it seeks to ease supply constraint­s and boost economic growth.

Revised Neocom priorities come after more than four months of uninterrup­ted s Eskom power supply due to reduced reliance on the utility. The energy availabili­ty factor is now above 60% compared with 54% in 2023.

The priority areas were discussed and approved at a meeting between Business for SA (B4SA), the presidency and members of the executive on Tuesday, where updates on the formal partnershi­p between organised business and the government were given. The partnershi­p was establishe­d in 2023 to address challenges in energy, logistics, crime and corruption that have all been identified as serious constraint­s on growth.

James Mackay, CEO of the Energy Council of SA, said the next phase of the partnershi­p’s work will be on reforming the sector and accelerati­ng the SA’s energy transition to reduce the economy’s reliance on Eskom to ensure competitiv­eness.

A combinatio­n of an increase in private sector investment in renewable energy and work by Eskom will be led by energy minister Kgosientsh­o Ramokgopa and Necom, said Mackay.

“There are calls for good governance structures with solid terms of references ... and driving towards a rules-based transition where all parties can understand transparen­cy. That creates confidence as to how we take forward this next phase of Necom,” Mackay told reporters on Wednesday.

“The energy workstream was reported to have had the most impact, achieving a dramatic reduction in load-shedding, in collaborat­ion with Eskom (more than 140 days without load-shedding so far this year), and significan­t grid capacity recovery (with more than 6GW of new generation capacity added) through investment in additional technical support and capacitati­on from 57 companies investing over 9,000 hours at five power stations,” the presidency and B4SA said after the meeting.