DA welcomes gazetting of Integrated Resource Plan

27 August 2018

The DA welcomes the gazetting of the latest Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) by Energy Minister Jeff Radebe after a number of false starts over the last few years.

In particular, we welcome the policy shift away from building new nuclear power plants. This IRP confirms that former President Jacob Zuma’s corrupt nuclear deal has been shut down in favour of cheaper, cleaner sources of energy.

Minister Radebe and President Ramaphosa deserve credit for taking on the Zuma faction and winning. It is now presumably up to Deputy President David Mabuza – as the President’s special envoy to Russia – to explain to President Vladimir Putin that the nuclear deal is off. We wish him the best of luck on his mission.

The fact of the matter is that we never needed new nuclear plants, and we didn’t have the money to build them. On this score, the new draft IRP is a substantial improvement on the old one.

The plan includes the following new additional capacity by 2030:

1000 MW of generation from coal (previously 16386 MW)

2500 MW from hydro (previously 3399 MW)

5670 MW from solar PV (previously 0 MW)

8100 MW from wind (previously 11800 MW)

8100 MW from gas (previously 8666 MW).

0 MW from nuclear (previously 9600 MW)

We will study the IRP further during the 60-day public consultation period, and will begin engaging with various experts. We will also table the draft IRP for discussion with the Minister and Department of Energy officials in the parliamentary Portfolio Committee.

It appears that a difficult chapter in the energy sector is coming to a close. We are moving towards cleaner, renewable energy and away from the corrupt nuclear deal. This is something to be welcomed.

Issued by Gavin Davis, DA Shadow Minister of Energy, 27 August 2018