Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has described the decision to lift the licence-exemption cap on own- or embedded-generation plants from 1 MW to 100 MW as not only positive for addressing South Africa’s immediate electricity shortages, but also as “the precursor to the development of a new electricity supply industry in South Africa, which is going to be driven by far greater market dynamics than has hitherto been the case”.
In a virtual conversation directed by Citigroup chief country officer Peter Taylor as part of the SA Tomorrow conference, De Ruyter said the higher threshold would likely be an “important contributor to adding much-needed capacity to the grid”.