{"id":242651,"date":"2022-11-11T09:49:06","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T07:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/government-to-continue-to-ensure-access-to-electricity\/"},"modified":"2022-11-11T09:49:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T07:49:06","slug":"government-to-continue-to-ensure-access-to-electricity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/government-to-continue-to-ensure-access-to-electricity\/","title":{"rendered":"Government to continue to ensure access to electricity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe, says government will continue to take the lead in ensuring access to and supplying electricity and not put complete responsibility on the private sector to provide additional capacity.<\/p>\n

Mantashe was speaking during a virtual National Assembly debate of the Just Energy Transition (JET) on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Energy] is a public good. The state must continue playing its role in ensuring that people have access to this public good. Hence the talk of the generation which should be a public entity that continues to develop baseload capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must therefore be clear that Eskom is not for sale. It remains the country\u2019s baseload energy generator. The disaggregation of Eskom into three utility divisions\u2026forms part of our plan to secure energy supply to society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Turning to the JET, Mantashe reiterated his stance that a \u201ccombination of energy technologies\u201d \u2013 an energy mix \u2013 is the most \u201creliable solution\u201d to addressing energy supply needs while embarking on a transition from high carbon emissions to a low carbon economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ought to guarantee baseload energy supply through a combination of gas, nuclear, coal and hydro. A pendulum swing from coal powered energy generation to renewable energy does not guarantee baseload stability. It will sink the country into a baseload crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressure to abandon coal instantly must be resisted and opt for a systematic step by step transition that we can afford.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work done by the Council for Geoscience in collaboration with the World Bank on carbon capture, utilisation and storage gives us hope that coal will continue to play a critical part in our Just Energy Transition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Minister emphasised that South Africa\u2019s JET must bear in mind the livelihoods of those working in and benefitting from the coal industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Just Transition debate is a complex and contested terrain in which countries across the globe seek to advance their own national interests. We accept that a transition is a journey and not an event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a journey that must be \u2018just\u2019. Justice must be seen to be done, it must be people centred and not just about numbers and it must take into consideration socioeconomic conditions of communities that will be affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our collective responsibility to ensure that the people of South Africa are cushioned from the dire consequences associated with the Just Energy Transition, including job losses in carbon intensive industries. Our transition must be geared towards advancing our national interests\u2026not hinder the country\u2019s pursuits of its socioeconomic objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Renewable energy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although coal is expected to play a role in future energy supply, government continues to sign renewable energy power purchase agreements (PPAs) to boost the ailing national grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust [on Thursday] we signed power purchase agreements with at least three IPPs [Independent Power Producers] under bid window five which will add over 300MW to the national grid once completed over the next 12 to 18 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe intend to be signing PPAs with other preferred bidders under this window,\u201d said Mantashe. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe, says government will continue to take the lead in ensuring access to and supplying electricity and not put complete responsibility on the private sector to provide additional capacity. Mantashe was speaking during a virtual National Assembly debate of the Just Energy Transition (JET) on Thursday. \u201c[Energy] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-242651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/government-to-continue-to-ensure-access-to-electricity.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}