The National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) is aiming to launch the first iteration of the wholesale electricity market by April 1 next year, subject to completion of regulatory work by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).
Andrew Etzinger, the NTCSA’s General Manager for Energy Market Services and the International Trader, outlined the timeline during a briefing to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy on Wednesday, June 11. The update covered the development of the South African Wholesale Electricity Market and transmission infrastructure progress.
A final draft of the Market Code, which defines participation rules and criteria, will be submitted to NERSA by the end of June, following a year of stakeholder consultation, Etzinger said. NERSA is expected to hold public hearings before finalising the code. The regulator has also confirmed it will begin processing the NTCSA’s licence application to operate the market.
“A key priority is ensuring that the Market Code is robust and flexible to accommodate feedback and learning during implementation,” Etzinger said. “We must expect the code will undergo several iterations.” As custodian, NERSA will manage this feedback process.
Etzinger stressed the importance of building capacity across the market operator and participants. “Market participants will need to understand pricing, bidding, how the various markets function and the associated risks for generators,” he said.
To support this, Eskom has conducted an internal simulation since 2019 with power stations bidding against each other and the distribution division purchasing electricity, mirroring market dynamics without involving actual money. Transactions are benchmarked against NERSA-approved tariffs. The next phase will include independent power producers and licensed distributors, Etzinger said.
Since the launch of the Transmission Development Plan in 2024, 318 km of transmission lines have been completed with 2 602 km under construction. Transformer capacity totalling 2 620 MVA has been built with 21 000 MVA in progress, said the NTCSA’s interim CEO, Segomoco Scheppers. “We are not yet where we need to be. We need to double those numbers and then double them again, reaching 1 600 km annually by 2028.”
He also emphasised the need to maintain and modernise the existing network to ensure long-term reliability.
Scheppers cited challenges in land acquisition and supply chain constraints. “As linear infrastructure, we need approvals to cross private and state land,” he said, warning of encroachment risks from informal settlements even after routes are secured.
Domestically, the supply chain remains limited. South Africa has only one supplier of fabricated structural steel, one for Class 3b transformers and none for Class 4 transformers, Scheppers said.
