The government's long-awaited Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP, will be gazetted on Monday, Energy Minister Jeff Radebe has said.
Radebe was meeting with the National Economic Development and Labour Council in Nasrec, Johannesburg on Friday to finalise aspects of the IRP.
The IRP seeks to chart the means by which South Africa will manage and meet its electricity needs leading up to the year 2050.
The plan is highly anticipated as it will provide insight into the state's 20-year approach to SA's energy mix, to which industries and organised labour will be paying keen attention.
The minister told reporters on the sidelines of a briefing to Parliament’s portfolio committee on energy on Wednesday that the IRP would be released no later than Monday.
Radebe tweeted on Friday that the meeting and engagements related to the IRP were still ongoing.
"Good morning, the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) Update meeting is currently underway at NEDLAC EXCO - the updated IRP document will be gazetted on Monday and will be uploaded on the Department of Energy website," said Radebe.
Radebe said the IRP should be considered as a national electricity plan with a broad, long-term vision, as opposed to the overarching Integrated Energy Plan.
"It is a subset of the Integrated Energy Plan. The IRP is also not a short- or medium-term operational plan, but a plan that directs the expansion of the electricity supply over the given period," he said.
"The Long-term Electricity Planning goal is to ensure sustainable development, considering: Technical constraints, Economic constraints, Social constraints & externalities (sic)," he said.
Radebe said the IRP, together with ministerial determinations issued under Section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act, served as policy signals investors use to plan their investments in the country’s energy sector.