President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the last State of the Nation Address (SONA) of the 6th democratic administration in Cape Town City Hall on Thursday.
In July 2022 Ramaphosa addressed the long running electricity crisis in the country and announced reforms that would go a long way towards easing power generation constraints the country has been grappling with for over 10 years.
During this year’s SONA he staed that South Africa has revived the renewable energy programme five years ago, connecting more than 2,500 MW of solar and wind power to the grid with three times the amount already in procurement or construction.
“Through tax incentives and financial support, we have more than doubled the amount of rooftop solar capacity installations across the country in just the past year.
We have implemented sweeping regulatory reforms to enable private investment in electricity generation, with more than 120 new private energy projects now in development.” he said.
Ramaphosa acknowledged these developments and said they are phenomenal in driving the restructuring of the electricity sector in line with what many other economies have done to increase competitiveness and bring down prices.
He stated that through these actions he is confident that the worst is behind South Africans and the end of load shedding is finally within reach.
“To ensure that we never face a similar crisis ever again, we are reforming our energy system to make it more competitive, sustainable and reliable into the future.
We are going to build more than 14,000km of new transmission lines to accommodate renewable energy over the coming years”,he said.
To fast-track the process. the country will enable private investment in transmission infrastructure through a variety of innovative investment models.
These include tabling the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill in 2023 to support the restructuring of Eskom and establish a competitive electricity market to position the economy for future growth in a world shaped by climate change and a revolution in green technologies.
Ramaphosa added that South Africa is implementing a just energy transition, not only to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change but to create growth and jobs for citizens.
“We will undertake this transition at a pace, scale and cost that our country can afford and in a manner that ensures energy security.
With our abundance of solar, wind and mineral resources, we are going to create thousands of jobs in renewable energy, green hydrogen, green steel, electric vehicles and other green products”, he concluded.