Energy plan welcomed

It took almost a month of intense stage 6 load shedding for President Cyril Ramaphosa to finally take charge of the electricity crisis that has deepened year after year, but the steps he eventually announced to end load shedding, ensure the sustainability of Eskom, and transform the electricity supply industry have been broadly welcomed by energy experts. Without reverting to a state of disaster or emergency, Ramaphosa announced steps to: Improve the performance of Eskom’s power stations; Accelerate procurement of generation capacity; Massively increase private sector investment in generation capacity; Enable businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar; and A large part of the “action plan to end load-shedding” announced on Monday night rests on fixing the struggling state-owned power utility and on expanding and fast-tracking the state’s own renewable energy procurement processes. A big question mark still remains over how this will be funded so all eyes on the Finance Minister come the mini budget in October. It is also worth noting the unequivocal support for the current Eskom leadership following the energy Minister’s comments about CEO Andre de Ruyter last week. To talk about this Michael Avery is joined by Busi Mavuso, CEO: Business Unity SA: Dr Miriam Altman, Director, Altman Advisory & Professor of 4IR Practice: University of Johannesburg and Clyde Mallinson, Independent energy analyst