Africa-Press – South-Africa. The process of unbundling Eskom is one step closer to realisation after SA’s energy regulator approved the operating licence for an independent transmission company. On Friday, the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) said it approved a licence for the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTC) to operate the national power grid. This was after a public hearing in April, where all the presenters that made oral presentations supported the application for the licence.
The NTC will run the Transmission Network Service Provider, the Transmission System Planner, the office of the Grid Code Secretariat, and the System Operator. The System Operator has an overview of the systems of every unit at every power station in the country and manages the entire system’s power supply and demand from a centralised control centre. The System Operator determines which stage of load shedding is required to ensure grid stability.
“This is a milestone decision by the energy regulator and will immensely contribute in Eskom’s unbundling trajectory,” Nersa chair Thembani Bukula said in a statement.
No announcement has yet been made on the crucial appointment of a board to head up the NTC. Eskom made recommendations for directors over a year and a half ago.
The roadmap for Eskom published by Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan in 2019 proposes the splitting up of Eskom into three units: generation, transmission and distribution. The restructuring is essential to creating a competitive electricity market in SA, where multiple producers sell power to a single state-owned grid company.
This week renewable energy developer G7 took Eskom to court to challenge the utility’s new grid access rules. Until 27 June, Eskom used a first come, first served system, in which the first developer who applied was put first in the queue. On 27 June, Eskom changed these rules to a first come, first ready basis, which required independent power producers to prove that their project was shovel-ready before being granted grid access.
G7 argued that Eskom did not have the authority to change the grid-access rules, which it says can only be done by the Nersa.
The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg is expected to rule next week on G7’s application to urgently interdict the implementation of the new rules.
Meanwhile, Nersa also concurred with a variety of draft ministerial determinations to procure new energy – 1 000 MW from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, 2 000 MW from projects as part of the load shedding reduction programme, and 800MW in emergency power procurement.
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