The “electricity war room” is focusing all its energy towards implementing government’s five-point plan, Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti said earlier this week.
The Minister said this during a briefing by the Economic Sectors, Employment and Infrastructure Development Cluster at the Imbizo Centre in Cape Town, which he chairs. Government’s various clusters are briefing media on the implementation of government’s programme of action following President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address on 12 February. The Minister said the five-point plan entails implementing Eskom’s maintenance and capacity improvement programme; introducing new generation capacity through coal; entering into cogeneration contracts with the private sector; introducing gas to power and accelerating demand side management. “In order to mitigate energy challenges faced by the country, government will provide R23 billion to Eskom in the next fiscal year to improve its finances. “The process of renewing the existing co-generation contracts has been issued. One of government’s objectives in the medium- to long-term includes the diversification of our energy sources. “Our state-owned companies are undertaking programmes to accelerate the exploration for oil and gas,” Minister Nkwinti said.
He also said a number of exploration wells will be drilled over the next 10 years in partnership with the private sector and gas infrastructure will be expanded.
This, the Minister said, would lead to the refining of capacity, pipelines, storage tanks and port facilities. The Minister added this would also include import hydro-power and nuclear and renewable energy. In December last year, Cabinet announced that a war room had been set up following the power outages which were impacting on the daily lives of South Africans. The war room is made up of the Departments of Energy, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Public Enterprises, National Treasury, Economic Development, Water and Sanitation and Eskom, as well as technical officials.
