Understanding south africa’s independent power producer programme

Energy is central to national economic growth and prosperity. In 2003, South Africa published its White Paper on Independent Power Procurement as a first step in market liberalization. To date, South Africa has procured via Ministerial Determinations, mostly from on shore wind and solar photovoltaic, renewable energy to compliment the national power utility baseload of thermal coal, imported hydro and nuclear. The new investments in renewable energy was substantial, R200b as compared to Eskom’s New Build of Medupi, Kusile and Ingula of R400b; all being sovereign guaranteed. The paper analyses the utility scale renewable energy investments since inception. The conclusion is that the future of renewable energy resources will be limited to only wind and solar photovoltaic technologies. These will most likely be developed in just three provinces of South Africa as a complimentary energy resource to the national grid. They will have no role in national energy security. Given the demise of coal as the vanguard of national energy security, the accountability transfers to nuclear. A new era of the 4^th industrial revolution of advanced manufacturing and industrialization will emerge. The private sector led auction and bid financing as developed in the IPP program is a strength worthy of transfer to the new nuclear national investment programme.