Access to electricity now stands at 88% of all households, Minister of Energy Tina Joemat-Pettersson told Parliament during her budget vote speech.

Over 6.7 million households have been connected between 1994 and March 2016. “This is remarkable. But the more successful we have been, so too have the demands increased, sometimes with great impatience, from those yet to be connected,” said Joemat-Pettersson.

R5.6 billion was allocated during the last financial year for the electrification programme to deliver 260 000 connections utilising both grid and non-grid technologies.

 

New connections

By the end of March 2016 Integrated Electrification Programme (INEP) achieved 256 088 new connections as part of the 2015/16 financial year allocations which were implemented by municipalities, Eskom and non-grid service providers.

The final figure will only be determined as soon as all the verification of the new connections has been completed, which will be by the end of May 2016. However the department is confident that the target of 260 000 new connections will have been achieved.

“The non-grid programme has progressed well in the last financial year and has over overachieved its target by over 5 000 by completing over 25 000 modern solar energy connections,” said the minister.

Since the inception of the Non-Grid Programme, INEP has completed more than 123 000 installations of non-grid systems mainly in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape and Limpopo. These are now also being considered for installation in urban areas of the country with a view of increasing basic electricity services in informal settlements and elsewhere.

The INEP programme has been allocated R5.5 billion in the 2016/17 financial year spread across all our provinces and municipalities. Transfers directly to municipalities will amount to R1.9 billion and transfers via ESKOM to municipalities will amount to R3.5 billion.

 

Nuclear

In signalling progress in relation to its processes, the minister announced the additional funding of R200 million in the Nuclear Energy programme for transactional advisors and consulting services for the financial year 2016/17.

 

Renewable energy

Joemat-Pettersson hailed the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), established in 2010, as one of the world’s most progressive and successful alternative energy programmes.

“The rapid roll-out of our renewable energy programme has attracted significant international attention. In the last two years, our country has consistently been ranked amongst the top achievers globally for installed solar and wind capacity, for the amount of investment in renewable energy, and, for offering an attractive market for investment in renewable energy.”

As at 31 December 2015, the department had procured 6 377 MW of renewable energy through the programme and has already connected 44 projects with a capacity of 2 021 MW to the national grid.

The energy contribution of independent power producers is expected to grow to approximately 7 000 MW with the first 47 renewable energy independent power producers fully operational by mid-2016. Private investment in the programme currently exceeds R194 billion.

The programme also seeks to procure energy from small scale independent power producers, with projects that generate between 1 MW and 5 MW of energy from solar, wind, biomass and landfill gas projects.