SA's energy blueprint 'outdated', doesn't favour new tech: Deputy Electricity Minister
Graham-Maré and the department were briefing Parliament’s Energy and Electricity portfolio committee on the country's energy policies.
Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and Deputy Minister Samantha Graham-Maré brief members of the media on electricity distribution and generation performance on 12 August 2024. Picture: GCIS
CAPE TOWN - Energy and Electricity Deputy Minister Samantha Graham-Maré says the country's energy blueprint is outdated and an update or review is years overdue.
She said the Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) of 2019 requires urgent reviewing as it doesn’t allow for new technology in the energy generation space.
Graham-Maré and the department were briefing Parliament’s Energy and Electricity portfolio committee on the country's energy policies.
On Friday, the Department of Energy and Electricity presented the integrated resource plan and the IEP that set off the country's energy agenda to Parliament.
On the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), Graham said the blueprint for energy generation was outdated and has since been returned to the department.
READ: Draft plan on increasing electricity generation capacity out for public comment
"We found that the modelling on the IRP was outdated. It doesn't make allowance for new technologies particularly," said Graham-Maré.
She said the IRP also had major flaws that will hopefully be resolved when affected parties come together.
"The IRP is very much overdue and then came out and we established there were major flaws with it and that was evidenced in the number of submissions made," Graham-Maré.
The department said they are at a stage where they’ve just finalised the analysis of the submissions - and that Cabinet will only approve the revised policy at that point.