The World Bank has granted its consent for the proposed legal separation of the Transmission division from Eskom Holdings to the National Transmission Company South Africa
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State-owned utility Eskom has announced that multilateral development bank the World Bank, a key strategic creditor of the entity, has granted its consent for the proposed legal separation of the Transmission division from Eskom Holdings to the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA).
“The World Bank's consent marks a significant milestone in advancing our turnaround plan and contributing towards a sustainable resolution of the country’s energy crisis. It is subject to certain conditions, for example, confirmation that all the necessary suspensive conditions required to operationalise NTCSA have been met.
“With the NTCSA having obtained licences for the operation of a transmission facility, as well as an electricity trading and an import/export licence from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), obtaining the remaining financial creditor consents is one of the final outstanding conditions to the implementation of the legal separation of Transmission.
“We are hopeful that the remaining consents will be granted as soon as possible so that we can finalise this process,” says Eskom acting group CE Calib Cassim.
Eskom explains that the legal separation of Transmission is a strategic objective and key aspect of Eskom’s Turnaround Plan envisaged in the Department of Public Enterprises’ ‘Roadmap for Eskom in a reformed electricity supply industry’.
Eskom adds that the separation of the Transmission division is pivotal, enabling much-needed new grid access, to encourage investment in the generation sector and, through that, help the country improve its security of supply.