Five months after its adoption by the cabinet and after mounting concern about the delays with it, the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill has been formally introduced in parliament.
The introduction of the bill was listed in the latest report on announcements, tablings and committee reports.
This means parliament’s mineral resources & energy committee can begin deliberations on the all-important bill, which is vital for the liberalisation of the energy market.
It will establish a transmission system operator, which will purchase electricity from Eskom and independent power producers on a basis that is free from conflict of interest.
The establishment of an independent transmission company forms part of the unbundling of Eskom into separate generation, distribution and transmission entities, which was announced in 2019. The company will be able to raise capital for investment in transmission infrastructure, the limitations of which have been a severe constraint on access to the grid by independent power producers.
Committee chair Sahlulele Luzipo warned recently that if the bill were not introduced in September there would be little chance of it being processed by the committee before the elections in 2024. Earlier this week, Business Leadership SA CEO Busisiwe Mavuso said she was “appalled” by the “unacceptable” delays in processing the bill.
This was highly frustrating for organised business, which has been working with the government to resolve the electricity supply crisis, said Mavuso.
The department of mineral resources & energy insisted last week that it is not responsible for the delay, and gave the assurance it is committed to the transformation of SA’s energy sector and wants the bill to be finalised expeditiously.
“The process leading towards the promulgation of the bill into an act of parliament lies within parliament as prescribed in the rules of parliament.
“During this process, the department has been in constant engagements with [the office of the chief state law adviser] to ensure speedy processing of the bill,” the department said in a statement.
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