Ramaphosa calls urgent Eskom meeting: report
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to chair a special Cabinet meeting this Wednesday to debate slowing down the decommissioning of ageing coal power plants.
News24 reports that the urgent meeting was called after a ruling party national working committee on Monday confirmed that it would support the slowing down of the retirement of old coal power stations.
“According to two insiders with knowledge of the discussions, the plan suggests that this would be done through public-private partnerships, limiting the financial burden to the fiscus,” reported the publication.
The decision to slow down the bringing to an end to the age of coal reliance stands in stark contrast to the country’s Just Transition Framework that entails the shift toward renewable energy.
The Just Transition has been advocated for by the presidency and has attracted $8.5 billion in foreign investment from rich countries involved in COP 26.
Under the multi-billion-dollar agreement Ramaphosa has with wealthier countries looking to assist in the decarbonisation of South Africa, there are a number of conditional loans that require the country to stick with its mandate of curtailing coal use.
Following tours to the embattled power utilities coal fleet, the newly appointed electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa floated the option that he would promote investment into the refurbishment of coal power stations while boosting investment in private coal mines.
Despite this not being an official proposal for the way forward, he raised concerns about South Africa’s rapid decommissioning of coal power stations and replacing them with renewable energy sources that may not generate the same amount of power as the stations being taken offline.
This stance has been criticised heavily by energy analysts and stakeholders at large for the government straying away from its original Integrated Resource Plan 2019 – that it has used as a fundamental guide to tackling severe load shedding.
The exact meeting details are unknown; however, with winter on the horizon and analysts pointing to load shedding creeping to record highest as demand shoots up in the colder months – all eyes are on the government to provide relief for South Africans that are cold and sitting in the dark.
The minister of electricity has stressed that renewables are the future of stable energy supply; however, when faced with dire-short term outlooks for Eskom and load shedding, coal remains the foundation of the country’s base load energy supply – presenting challenging questions for government spread across various different priorities.
Government was warned this would happen
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