Cabinet approves bill to open South Africa’s electricity market

March 30, 2023 Siyabonga Mtangana

Cabinet has approved a bill on electricity regulation designed to clear the path for private generation projects and power trading.

State-owned Eskom has provided more than 90% of electricity used in South Africa for a century. The Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill outlines an entity to buy power as a step towards establishing a competitive market.

The draft bill has been approved for submission to parliament and will be prioritised, minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters in Pretoria on Thursday.

Eskom has become an unprofitable utility, despite its monopoly, and is moving ahead with a plan to separate the business into generation, transmission and distribution units.

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The bill will strengthen the role of energy regulator Nersa and allow measures to create a transmission system operator that includes the “provision of an electricity trading platform on a multi-market basis, and provide access to the transmission network on a non-discriminatory basis”, Ntshavheni said in a statement. — (c) 2023 Bloomberg LP