Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor revealed on Tuesday the Economic Cluster of Ministers would be deliberating on the next iteration of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electricity at its next meeting and questioned whether a nuclear request for proposals (RFP) could be released until there had been agreement on the generation plan.

“I’m not certain, despite your insistence [as the media] that we would be able to proceed with a call for proposals immediately this week . . . and I think that it is important for us to have agreed the IRP, at a minimum, before we proceed,” Pandor said at an Economic Cluster report back briefing in Pretoria.

She added that, once the cluster had agreed on the IRP, it would be taken to Cabinet for approval and that it would then be shared with the public.

Pandor’s position was at odds with a statement made by Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson in Parliament on September 7, when the Energy Minister indicated that the RFP would be released on September 30.

The current IRP version, known as IRP 2010, is six years out of date and incorporates demand assumptions that have turned out to be far too high in light of South Africa’s weak economic performance. In addition, recent electricity supply instability and price hikes have hurt the performance of energy-intensive industries, which has lowered demand.

The IRP 2010 calls for the addition of 9 600 MW of new nuclear capacity by 2030, with the first reactor to be introduced by 2023 – a timeline that cannot be achieved given the long gestation period associated with the construction of a new nuclear power station.

A number of electricity sector commentators, as well as opposition politicians, have called for the plan to be updated before proceeding with a nuclear tender and for the plan to integrate some of the price and performance advances that have been made since 2010, particularly in the renewable-energy arena.

However, government wants to use the RFP to secure technical, financing and localisation offers from the various nuclear vendor countries and has identified Eskom as the owner operator of any new plant.

Eskom has indicated that it is keen to build additional nuclear capacity and has also said that it would be in a position to contribute to financing the plants, with some R150-billion to be generated from its operations in the coming ten years.

The utility has also indicated that it is targeting a levelised cost from the new nuclear facilities of less than R1/kWh.