The National Energy Regulator of South Africa has granted a license to the National Transmission Company South Africa to operate the country’s transmission system. This move is a major milestone in Eskom’s split into three entities – Generation, Distribution, and Transmission.
Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned power utility, is facing a major problem with its transmission grid capacity to accommodate new wind and solar plants. The lack of funds and inadequate expansion has led to grid saturation in key regions, such as the Northern, Western, and Eastern Cape.
Former Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga believes that focusing on improving the performance of Eskom’s coal fleet and recognizing the importance of coal will solve South Africa’s load-shedding issues.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has approved generation licenses for five preferred bidders from Bid Window 6, allowing them to add 860MW of capacity through photovoltaic solar power plants.