Nuclear to get short end in energy mix
Integrated Resource Plan is favourably disposed towards procuring more renewable power
The broad strokes of SA’s long awaited Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) – the government’s long-term energy plan — which was presented to business and labour in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) on Friday do not indicate a need for any new nuclear power to be added to the grid and envisages an overall reduction in coal-generated energy by 2030. The plan is favourably disposed towards procuring more renewable energy and co-generated energy, which will lead to greater competition in the electricity sector. The IRP models project energy demand and the relative costing of various technologies to produce a long-term plan of the generation facilities that will be required by the economy. The plan has been bogged down in politics mostly because of lobbying by former president Jacob Zuma that SA should build nuclear power reactors. Minister of energy Jeff Radebe gave business and labour first sight of the plan on Friday in a presentation to Nedlac. The detail of th...
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