The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) has called for the Department of Energy to follow a number of important requirements with all stakeholders before releasing the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).
The requirements include the latest and updated full cost figures on energy options and a meaningful engagement with all stakeholders before releasing the IRP.
The organisation says there should be no room for secrecy or box-ticking in the decision making of the IRP although the plan is already long overdue.
Robyn Hugo, programme head for Pollution & Climate Change at CER says there should be at least reasonable opportunity for comment on the draft to give stakeholders a chance to engage with the plan.
"It won’t be fair or appropriate for them to publish the IRP over the festive season when people are not available or have the proper opportunity to give input," Hugo says.
The IRP for Electricity 2010-2030 has become a contentious issue after the energy department as well as Treasury gave Eskom the mandate to go ahead and procure the nuclear energy programme for South Africa, and Eskom for the last few weeks has been talking about the importance of starting the tender process for nuclear by early next year before South Africa runs out of base load capacity in 2026. Building a nuclear power station will take about 8-10 years.
Hugo says the department should allow stakeholders to engage with the complicated, technical information that the IRP draft will present. Some of the requirements the CER said are necessary before the document is gazetted include, the least cost combination of technologies, explaining all assumptions on which all modelling is based and not unnecessarily constrain or limit renewable energy investments and should be consistent with South Africa’s international obligations in climate change.
She says if these requirements are circumvented then the IRP would be open to legal challenge by the CER as well as other energy stakeholders.
"Not to engage with stakeholders would certainly be a violation of rights," she says.
With the same breath a few weeks ago the CSIR as well as other energy analysts also shared their concerns about their issues with publishing an IRP plan which is not updated with the latest figures on South Africa's electricity plan.
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