The Department of Electricity and Energy expects to receive a preliminary report on the cost-benefit study of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Master Plan (SAREM) by March this year.
According to Deputy Minister of Electricity and Energy Samantha Graham-Maré, the recent establishment of a project management office (PMO) is expected to accelerate implementation of the long-delayed plan.
“It has taken much longer than we had hoped, largely due to finding the right institutional home for the office and changes around where it was initially located,” she told Energize. “We believe we have now found the best possible fit by placing it within the Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office where programmes will be able to complement one another.”
She said, as the IPP Office rolls out renewable energy procurement rounds, SAREM will be able to feed directly into those processes, aligning industrial development objectives with energy procurement.
Graham-Maré added that additional resources are being brought in to support the master plan with several organisations involved in drafting the plan seconding personnel to the PMO. The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition is also providing support.
“I chair the Executive Oversight Committee and we have adopted an action plan with clear timelines so that we can now begin to move at pace,” she said.
A service provider has been appointed to conduct the cost-benefit study, which will assess the economic viability of various components of the plan, including which renewable energy technologies and components could be competitively manufactured in South Africa.
“The preliminary report is expected in March and will give us feedback from industry role players on the components that can realistically be localised so that we can establish the manufacturing base we want,” she said.
Government is also intensifying engagement on a demand-led skills development platform whereby industry identifies required skills in the renewable energy sector and further education and training institutions align existing and new programmes accordingly.
“With the PMO now established and operational, we expect implementation to gather momentum,” she said.
