The Department of Energy is now ready to publish the integrated resource plan approved by the Cabinet in December‚ energy minister David Mahlobo announced in parliament on Tuesday.
The minister has previously said the release of the revised integrated resource plan was imminent but the plan did not materialise.
A revised draft of the plan was released for public comment about a year ago after which it was revised into a final plan‚ which was adopted by the Cabinet.
The plan determines the energy mix for the next 20 years‚ and crucially will identify if and how much new nuclear energy will be required.
The draft integrated resource plan determined that new nuclear energy would only be required in 2035. There were fears that the final plan altered this in order to fulfil former president Jacob Zuma’s determination to initiate a new nuclear build programme.
Addressing parliament’s energy portfolio committee‚ Mahlobo said that due to the state of the economy‚ energy demand in the final integrated resource plan had been revised downwards.
He stressed that the integrated resource plan was not policy but a resource plan. The department had not decided to initiate any major projects to implement the plan.
"If we are to proceed with any solutions proposed in the integrated resource plan we will need to have a business plan‚" the minister said.
He added that in the next few days he would be engaging with credit-ratings agencies with regard to Eskom’s situation.
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