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Eskom’s Monopoly Is Sinking Consumers and the Economy

Dear Editor

The abrupt return to stage 6 loadshedding late last night underlines the fact that South Africa cannot rely on Eskom to be its primary source of electricity. The over-reliance on Eskom to maintain and build new generation capacity has led to the creation of a monopoly of supply, and what is essentially a single point of failure.

South Africa urgently needs to open its electricity supply sector, by accelerating the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme and incentivising the private sector to become more actively involved in addressing our electricity needs.

To achieve this, the country must resolve several key sectoral reforms:

  • Eskom must be rapidly and completely unbundled, with the System and Market Operator achieving full independence as quickly as possible.
  • The Market Operator (currently the National Transmission Company of South Africa) must urgently finalise and implement the Market Code to facilitate the trading and wheeling of electricity.
  • The roll out of additional transmission infrastructure must be prioritized and accelerated.
  • The Grid Access Unit, which determines whether Independent Power Producers can connect to the grid, must be moved from Eskom’s Distribution Division to the National Transmission Company of South Africa.
  • A national framework for feed in tariffs (both in Eskom and municipal supply areas) must be adopted. In this regard, it is vital that the registration and connection of grid-tied small scale embedded generation (such as rooftop solar) be streamlined and simplified. We must make it easier and cheaper for consumers (whether business or residential) to generate their own electricity and ease the burden on Eskom.

South Africa cannot afford to wait for Eskom to fix its internal shambles. The Minister of Electricity and Energy must take the necessary steps to enable a robust power sector that is no longer dependent on a failing Eskom to resolve this crisis. Our economy and people demand action.

Regards

Kevin Mileham MP
DA Spokesperson on Electricity & Energy

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