South Africa to lift power generation licence threshold to 10 MW

• 3 years ago (2021-04-27)
• David Flin

Africa 320 Wind 257

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South Africa plans to lift the licencing threshold for small-scale power generation projects to 10 MW, up from 1 MW. This will give a boost to firms wishing to have power supply not dependent of state utility Eskom .

According to the government notice, generation projects of up to 10 MW will need to register with energy regulator Nersa, despite being exempt from requiring a licence. The notice was signed by Gwede Mantashe, South Africa’s Mineral Resources and Energy Minister.

Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, said that easing licencing requirements for embedded generation projects could unlock up to 5000 MW of additional capacity.

Local experts have said that the threshold should be lifted to 50 MW, given the extent of the power shortfall and the fact that many companies want to build facilities larger than 10 MW.