The National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) has secured the capital budget required for the first five years of South Africa’s Transmission Development Plan (TDP) – providing funding certainty for the initial phase of the country’s long-term grid expansion programme.
Briefing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy on February 5, NTCSA CEO Monde Bala confirmed that funding for the first phase of the 10-year plan is in place, allowing projects to move from planning into delivery.
“For the first five years, we have secured the capital budget to do that,” Bala said. “Our focus is now shifting decisively towards execution.”
The TDP 2024 outlines a 2025-2034 programme to expand and reinforce the national transmission network in support of new generation capacity, future demand growth and system reliability. In total, the plan provides for the construction of approximately 14 500 km of new transmission lines and the installation of 210 transformers, representing around 133 000 MVA of additional transformation capacity.
According to the NTCSA, delivery under the plan is phased with approximately 5 000 km of new lines scheduled for the first five years while a substantial portion of transformer capacity is expected to be delivered in the latter half of the programme.
Bala said the secured funding has enabled the NTCSA to advance a large pipeline of projects across various stages of development. “Most of our projects in this 10-year programme are sitting at design stage with a significant portion already in execution,” he said.
The utility also reported that delivery performance during the past financial year exceeded internal projections for transmission line kilometres and transformer capacity added.
In parallel with network expansion, the secured funding will support a systematic refurbishment programme aimed at sustaining the existing grid while new infrastructure is built. The NTCSA estimates that 171 substations across a transmission network of approximately 33 367 km require refurbishment or asset replacement to maintain reliability.
“This refurbishment is essential for the sustainability of the current network,” Bala said.
Beyond infrastructure delivery, the NTCSA said the availability of capital provides greater certainty for implementing multiple delivery models under the TDP. These include engineering, procurement and construction as well as engineering, procurement, construction and management, self-build arrangements and independent transmission projects.
Bala said these delivery mechanisms intend to accelerate build rates, rebuild industry capacity and provide greater confidence to contractors and generation developers dependent on transmission availability.
The TDP also reflects growing pressure on grid capacity with the NTCSA indicating that more than 25 GW of generation projects are already committed and dependent on access to transmission infrastructure.
