United protest in offing against draft energy plan

A groundswell of discontent against government’s proposed energy policies has emerged, spearheaded by the Climate Justice Coalition (CJC) and its array of civil society allies.

The group of South African trade unions, civil society and community-based organisations is preparing to take to the streets in a unified display against the government’s draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) energy plan.

ALSO READ: Deterioration of Eskom’s power plants ‘must be addressed’ – energy analysts

It said it rejected the IRP 2023, which is even worse than previous plans.

It would keep the country stuck with load shedding for years and its implementation would delay the transition away from coal.

“Most worrying is that, compared to the last IRP, it’s scaled back renewable energy heavily,” said Alex Lenferna, general secretary at CJC.

“It’s done that even though other government models have shown renewable energy and storage is the best way.

Pushing gas

“It pushes in a lot of gas power, as well as delays the retirement of many coal plants for about a decade.

“It’s really locking us into a very polluting, expensive and less reliable energy future, like corrupt nuclear and powership deals.”

The group said the IRP favours the elites and corporations over poor and middle-income South Africans who would be subjected to “unreliable” and “unaffordable” energy.

“Those that have the money are moving towards renewable energy and storage because it is the most affordable and the best option for energy. And the government’s plan is trying to lock the masses into Eskom, which the majority rely on: into more expensive and polluting fossil fuels,” he said.

“They are the ones who have an increase in electricity costs. They’re going to be stuck with paying the bill for government’s expensive and dirty plan.”

The draft IRP 2023 relooks at the approved IRP 2019 and outlines government’s plans into 2030 and 2050, while the review of IRP 2019 has added significant changes, including the electricity demand projection, Eskom’s energy availability factor and its coal-fired power plants shutdown plan.

ALSO READ: Mantashe allays fears about looming gas crisis in SA

The group called for a rapid scale up of renewable energy and storage and just transition to a more socially owned, renewable energy-powered future, providing affordable energy for all.

Lenferna said: “Study after study has shown SA could have ended the load shedding crisis years ago by investing heavily in renewable energy and storage and properly maintaining the existing energy fleet.

“We want to see communities being able to earn and drive renewable energy, not just the private sector.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance has filed a court application at the high court against government’s plans to procure nuclear energy.

South Africa’s sole nuclear facility, Koeberg, has a capacity of 1 840MW and plans for a new nuclear stream are expected to be operational in 2032 or 2033.