The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has applauded the Presidential Climate Commission's (PCC) unambiguous inputs and direction in the contested domain of South Africa's electricity planning and management.
“We consider the PCC's recommendations to be a prudent balance of fiscal, social, and environmental responsibility as a result of its extensive consultation and consideration of the technical expertise available in the country,” the organisation said.
South Africa must decarbonise its electricity system to address crucial issues pertaining to human health, global competitiveness, and climate change.
A concerted expansion of renewable energy is the most effective and rapid short- to medium-term option for addressing the current electricity crisis.
The WWF said it endorsed the PCC's emphasis on ensuring that this transition was fair and was collaborating with other partners to facilitate the transition.
Despite the fact that the recommendations emphasise the need for peaking support for a variable renewable electricity blend, it is essential to note that even in the near future, fossil gas is likely to account for a negligible portion of this.
Batteries and other storage options are swiftly becoming more cost-effective and efficient. Companies that typically provide gas peaking support in Australia are already reducing their reliance on fossil fuels and replacing their peaking power installations with batteries. Therefore, there is little need to invest in upstream gas to solve this issue.
The WWF’s senior manager for climate action, James Reeler, said “the PCC’s clear leadership reflects both the global imperative to remove dirty fossil fuels from our electricity mix and the enormous opportunity for development that a clean and low-cost renewable electricity mix provides for South Africa”.
The WWF said it was confident that the government of South Africa would use these recommendations to inform a new and regularly updated integrated resource plan, and will also engage in proper integrated energy planning to ensure a responsible transition to a net-zero economy by 2050.
The PCC said on June 1, 2003, that it had engaged in a consultative process in the past few months in response to the Department of Mineral Resource and Energy’s request for inputs and recommendations from stakeholders on the revision of the 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).
The commission concluded its consultative process with stakeholders on the options for the future of electricity planning and the evolving energy mix and had provided President Cyril Ramaphosa with recommendations on the critical steps required for justice and courage in electricity planning for South Africa.
At the heart of the PCC's recommendations was a call for a modernised electricity system that “fosters inclusive economic growth, meets minimum emissions standards, and aims for the bottom end of the Nationally Determined Contributions, thereby allowing for lower capital costs and access to trade. Through these reports, we reaffirm that the Just Transition must be at the centre of our future electricity system.”
In light of South Africa's electricity crisis, the PCC is advocating in the short term for a range of renewable energy technologies supported by storage and peaking support that are inexpensive, well-known, and fast to implement. The commissioners are requesting an IRP that maximises the amount of renewable energy on the grid.
“For this reason, particularly in the short term, the PCC believes we should accelerate the construction of renewable energy generation facilities. If we adopt ambitious and clear goals in line with our development and just transition objectives, the PCC anticipates that a policy-adjusted IRP will promote approximately 50 to 60GW of variable renewable energy by 2030, supported by co-located storage, and between 3 and 5GW of peaking support,” according to Dr Crispian Olver, PCC executive director.
Environment