“Energy planning in South Africa has neglected the key element of how electricity moves from generation to consumption‚” the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said. In Gridlocked‚ a research paper‚ the ISS’s Steve Hedden criticises “government’s response to power shortages and load-shedding” for having been “a thrust towards more power generation” but has neglected the element of “transmission and distribution”.“Grid planning can’t be an afterthought. It has to be built in from the start.”One of the elements planners must now consider‚ the report said‚ is “the rise of renewable energy‚ and the addition of independent power producers (IPP)”.“The grid used to handle only a one-way flow of power from producer to consumer‚” said Hedden‚ but with “electricity generation…becoming decentralised” it now “has to accommodate potentially millions of small-scale producers feeding energy into the grid”.“Small-scale residential power generation from solar panels could account for 30GW of electricity-generating capacity in South Africa by 2050‚ but its contribution today is retarded by an absence of clear policies and regulation‚” said Hedden.“A more intelligent grid would be the result of investments in grid efficiency‚ and better electricity planning‚ operations and policies‚” Hedden said...