By Daniel Itai.
Johannesburg, South Africa. (News of The South) – South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa is now focussing on private power generation, following the national power utility Eskom’s, failure of meeting consumer demand.
The ailing state-owned power utility generates more than 90 percent of the country’s electricity but regularly struggles to meet demand because of breakdowns at its coal-fired power plants.
Many power-hungry companies such as mines want to build their own renewable energy plants to reduce their reliance on Eskom but have not been able to secure the necessary regulatory approvals.
“For the first time we are now saying let us have self-generation. We have opened up a new era that says we are now embracing the fact there are those companies and households that want to generate their own energy,” said Ramaphosa.
Roger Baxter, chief executive of the Minerals Council, said miners could build between 500 megawatts (MW) and 1 500 MW of their own generating capacity over the next few years if regulations were eased.
Yesterday, National Union of Metal Workers of SA (Numsa) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) picketed at Eskom’s headquarters, Megawatt Park in Johannesburg in protest over government’s proposed plan of privatisation and unbundling of Eskom.
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