Johannesburg - South Africa's second integrated resource plan (IRP2), a blueprint for the country's energy mix over the next 30 years, is close to being finalised, Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters said on Tuesday.
Speaking after a round table meeting with Business Unity South Africa, Peters said the draft IRP2 should be released later in April.
This is after the department originally anticipated releasing the draft by the end of March.
But Peters said the time overrun was due to the government's insistence that as many stakeholders as possible be included in the process.
Besides the president setting up an inter-ministerial committee to ensure that all government departments have a say, the state is compiling a database of interested stakeholders to provide input.
The stakeholders' consultation process is set to get under way in the next few days, said Peters.
It is now hoped that the plan will be finalised by June. Peters said the IRP2 would see a strong focus on renewable energy, an increased requirement on importation of energy and would drive home the importance of demand side management and energy efficiency.
The first IRP was introduced as a legal instrument in 2006.
Peters said the IRP is referred to as a legal instrument because the regulator is required to license only those projects that are in the IRP.
This, she said, should circumvent the uncertainty around which technologies are going to be deployed in future power stations.
"After promulgating IRP1 in December 2009, which addressed a specific objective in relation to the Eskom multi-year price determination, we have set ourselves a target of June 2010 for the next IRP, which will cover the period over the next 30 years," Peters said.
- I-Net Bridge