The Governance of Power: Shedding Light on the Electricity Sector in South Africa
Electricity Governance Initiative in South Africa has released a groundbreaking report, “The Governance of Power: Shedding Light on the Electricity Sector in South Africa.” The report, coordinated by Idasa, contains hard-hitting analysis of the governance challenges facing key national institutions, including the Department of Energy, the Electricity Supply Commission (Eskom), the National Energy Regulator of SA (NERSA) and the Department of Public Enterprises. “Secrecy, lack of consultation, confusion of roles and responsibilities, particularly for planning”, are some of the governance challenges before the sector,” noted Idasa’s Economic Governance Programme Director, Richard Calland.

Since the publication of the report, EGI South Africa has focused on improving the transparency and inclusiveness of the process by which the Department of Energy (DOE) is developing an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2) for the sector. The IRP has been of particular importance because of new coal-fired power plants that are in the pipeline, including Medupi, a 4800 MW plant which was recently approved for World Bank funding, and Kusile, a plant of similar size which is next in line.

Among the outcomes to date, the Department of Energy has:

• Disclosed for public record the membership of the group of advisors that are assisting with the writing of the IRP 2 plan
• Held public hearings on the assumptions underpinning IRP 2
• Extended the deadline for comments from 10 working days to the minimum 30 days required by law under the Administrative Justice Act
• Set up a website portal through which they are sharing info on IRP 2
• Produced a written record of all of the comments received and how they have been addressed

In order to build civil society capacity to participate substantively in the public hearings, EGI-SA conducted workshops in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, and helped arrange for DoE to brief the Energy Caucus, the only existing network of civil society and labour to engage on energy issues collectively. A workshop on international best practice in IRP laid the groundwork for producing an independent analysis of the IRP 2, which was submitted through DOE’s consultation process.

Timelines for finalizing the IRP2 have now been extended through November 2010, to allow a more complete modeling exercise and consultative planning process.