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The Electricity Regulation Amendment (ERA) Bill is now before parliament and will provide a key framework for dealing with South Africa’s energy crisis.
The Bill’s introduction has been listed in the latest parliamentary release on announcements, tablings and committee reports.
In a government gazette from April, the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources said that the new Bill would give a larger role to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), provide the electricity minister more powers and, most crucially, open up the nation’s electricity market to make room for more independent transmission companies.
Other amendments relate to the transmission system operator, such as defining its functions and powers by establishing a multi-market electricity trading platform.
The Bill also establishes a body to buy power, which should increase competition in the electricity market.
“They will also strengthen the performance of the electricity industry and ultimately create a conducive environment towards growing the economy,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Opening up the electricity market by growing the transmission sector is seen as a crucial step in the government’s plan to break Eskom into three separate entities.
The unbundling of Eskom will lead to the generation sector – currently Eskom’s worst-performing unit and the cause of load shedding – becoming more competitive as private electricity generation is welcomed whilst also allowing the transmission and distribution companies to continue expanding their operations.
Delay
The Bill has faced severe delays, despite being seen as an urgent and critical piece of legislation to address the nation’s electricity concerns.
According to Business Leadership South Africa CEO Busi Mavuso, it was revealed that an administrative error in processing the Bill caused severe delays.
Through this deal, the Bill has only now been tabled at parliament, with it still needing to go through parliament’s due process before becoming law.
“The bill was approved by cabinet in March, and the delays are inexplicable and unacceptable,” Mavuso said.
“The Mineral Resources and Energy Committee in parliament already has a full agenda making it difficult to process the bill through required public consultations in time for the year-end break. While the DMRE did not submit the bill properly, it is also inexplicable to me why parliament did not raise the alarm earlier. It leaves me feeling like neither is taking the electricity crisis seriously enough.”
She added that the own goal suggests that there is in-fighting within the government on how to solve the energy crisis. This has also led to further frustration in the private sector, which has committed to help solve the government’s problems.
“For businesses to continue to invest their energy into partnering with the government to resolve the crisis, we need confidence that such bungles will not happen. We need to see the institution of government holding people accountable when agreed actions are not taken, just as we would see in business,” she said.
“The frustration over the ERA Bill misstep is largely because it is so unnecessary. It is purely a bureaucratic bungle, not one born from the complexity of achieving policy reform. But it has revealed that certain parts of the government are just not serious about delivering the change we need.”
The latest parliamentary announcements, tablings, and committee report can be found below:
Read: Good news for load shedding in South Africa
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