Joemat-Pettersson urged to table energy plan so nuclear aim can be clear
Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson must table the Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) 2015 as a matter of urgency to allow parliament to scrutinise key issues contained in the document, including nuclear plans, Gordon Mackay, DA shadow minister of energy, said on Sunday.
The purpose of the IEP is to provide a roadmap of the future energy landscape for South Africa in order to guide future energy infrastructure investments and policy development by providing a thorough analysis of competing technologies for the provision of sustainable and cost effective electricity.
The IEP 2015 is presently before Cabinet and according to Mackay there are indications that government plans not one, but up to three R1trn nuclear deals by 2050.
"And this is while acknowledging that procurement of nuclear can, in fact, be delayed until at least 2020, if not later," said Mackay.
He referred to reports in the Sunday Times that the proposed IEP nuclear-generating capacity will be expanded to between 12 and 20 times that of South Africa’s current installed nuclear capacity of 1 830 MW.
"This effectively means that the Department of Energy (DoE) envisions a series of large-scale nuclear deals over the next 20 years, this despite ongoing and significant concerns of affordability by National Treasury and uncertainty as the impact on the cost of electricity for ordinary South Africans- particularly the poor," said Mackay.
In his view the IEP is a confirmation of the inevitability of the nuclear new build programme and to him it is a sign of political interference by the ANC government into the terrain of energy planning.
"The IEP, therefore, fails to provide an assessment of a potential energy mix which excludes nuclear, this despite the international energy landscape where major nuclear nations such as Germany, France and the US are all reducing their reliance on nuclear in favour of cleaner and cheaper renewables and gas," said Mackay.
"Further, the IEP argues for an energy mix biased towards a combination of large scale nuclear and large scale decentralised renewables - this despite general international consensus that the two technologies are largely incompatible due to the variable nature of renewables electricity generation."
In his view, the scope for gas in the IEP has "deliberately" been limited in order to produce a “nuclear heavy” energy road map.
"Internationally, a number of gas producers are coming online and numerous new gas finds are being made across Africa. This will result in an increased availability of natural gas and the subsequent decrease in the price of natural gas," he said.
"Government should have used this IEP to aggressively pursue gas as an alternative energy form, which is far safer, cleaner, cheaper and more job friendly compared to the use of the potentially politically motivated and unaffordable nuclear build programme."
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