Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson says that the current load-shedding incidents are receiving urgent attention with several steps, including the finalisation of the Integrated Energy Plan, being taken to address this.

“I want to reassure South Africans that the load-shedding which prevails is receiving our highest priority for urgent resolution.

“Partnerships have been established between government, labour, business and civil society to find solutions to our problems, in keeping with the great spirit of our country,” said the Minister.

Delivering the Department of Energy’s Budget Vote on Tuesday, the Minister said that government’s urgent response to load-shedding has accelerated the finalisation of the much awaited Integrated Energy Plan.

“Once approved by Cabinet, the Integrated Energy Plan will be published as a policy document. This Plan will inform our future energy mix and prioritise policy interventions for future programmes within the energy sector,” she told Parliament.

Last month, the department announced a package of energy supply and demand options.

“This will increase the independent power producer energy supply to the grid by means of renewable energy, coal, gas and co-generation by 17 000 megawatts towards the end of 2022.

“An annual increase of 2 400 megawatts of additional energy capacity will be added to the grid. Our current circumstances compel us to add a significant amount of electricity generation to the grid in a very short time,” said the Minister.