South Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, H.E. Gwede Mantashe, has announced revised terms for schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act, whereby licensing exemptions will be granted for the generation and production of up to 100MW of electricity.
Under the new terms, producers will no longer be required to have an operating license from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), enabling both private individuals and businesses to generate up to 100MW of electricity which can be fed back into the national grid.
The licensing decision comes exactly two months after President Cyril Ramaphosa first announced the proposed lifting of the licensing threshold from 1MW to 100MW, and is considered a significant move towards increasing energy security.
“After consultation with NERSA, and any other person who may be affected, we have gazetted a notice to amend Schedule 2 of the Elecricity Regulation Act to increase the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects from 1MW to 100MW,” stated H.E. Gwede Mantashe on Twitter.
By enabling private producers to generate up to 100MW of electricity, the government will significantly reduce dependency on the state-owed electricity company’s national grid by industries, businesses and private individuals, while additionally accelerating the country’s energy transition through increased renewable energy developments.
