Steenhuisen: Obstacles to solving energy crisis 'self-imposed'
DA leader John Steenhuisen says the party believes many of the obstacles in the way of government's ability to improve generation capacity at Eskom are self-imposed.
"Whether it’s by standing in the way of municipalities who want to procure or generate their own electricity, whether it’s through onerous regulations on small-scale generation, or any of the other counter-productive regulations around preferential procurement or local content requirement, this national government has consistently been the biggest part of the problem.”
Steenhuisen says he met with President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday to discuss the DA's emergency plan to fix the country's electricity supply problems.
He says their 16 proposed interventions include short-term to long-term solutions.
"We have urged the president to declare a ring-fenced state of disaster in the electricity sector. This is important because it will allow government to suspend all that red tape and legislation currently blocking the solutions to this crisis."
READ: Ramaphosa reiterates vow to end load shedding in near future
"Secondly, to issue a blanket Section 34 determination so that all municipalities in good financial standing can procure, generate and store their own electricity."
Steenhuisen says small-scale systems such as rooftop solar need to be incentivised and the regulatory burden eased to make it easier and cheaper.
This comes as Eskom warned of the possibility of load shedding at short notice on Monday.
It says several unit at the Kriel Power Station have tripped - leaving the system short of 2000 MW.
MORE ON ECR
