NERSA approves two licences for new transmission company
As South Africans
continue to suffer through load shedding, national energy regulator NERSA has
announced the approval of two licences which will allow for the establishment
of the National Transmission Company.
Nersa approved the application in July.
On Monday, the regulator announced has given the thumbs up for the company’s trading and import-export licences.
The restructuring of Eskom’s transmission division into a stand-alone entity will allow for the liberalising of the electricity trading market.
This will help private-sector financing to upgrade and expand the transmission network, which could cost around R210bn over the next 10 years.
READ: Power cuts brought down a notch to stage 5
The licence will also allow the new company to buy and sell electricity from Eskom power stations and independent power producers.
Eskom has meanwhile reintroduced stage 1 load shedding on Tuesday morning, which will escalate to stage 3 from 4pm.
The
utility says it was able to suspend the power cuts overnight because of fewer
unit breakdowns, and an improvement to its power generation capacity
