DA seeks meeting with Mantashe over IPP red tape
10 November 2020
Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites from Kevin Mileham MP.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, GwedeManatshe, to request a meeting to discuss the administrative red tape that is still making it difficult for Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to increase their investment in the sector and supply more power to the national grid.
Yesterday, accompanied by my colleague Jan de Villiers MP, who is the DA constituency Head in Touwsrivier, we conducted an oversight visit to the Touwsrivier CPV Solar Project run by the Pele Energy Group (PEG). The visit forms part of the DA’s ongoing industry consultation exercise with players in the Independent Power Producer (IPP) sector following the gazetting of s34 determinations to enable electricity procurement from IPPs.
Our meeting with PEG executives revealed that, while they welcome the announcement made by Minister Mantashe to procure 11 813 MW of electricity and storage from IPPs, the process to approve applications submitted in response to Request for Proposals is still taking an inordinate amount of time. The delays are forcing most industry players to postpone further investments in their operations, in the process limiting the amount of electricity they can supply to the grid.