Programme Director;
Dr K Nasiep, CEO of SANEDI;
Mr Graham Pugh, Director of the Department of Energy;
Mr Kurt Shickman, Executive Director, Global Cool Cities Alliance;
Representatives of the National Business Initiative;
All delegates from abroad and as well as local representatives;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen.
Good morning,
It is my pleasure and privilege to address you on this very important gathering here today with the opening of the Energy Management Workgroup meeting as part of the Global Superior Energy Performance (GSEP) activity. This follows in the footsteps of the of the 4th Clean Energy Ministerial meeting in New Delhi just over a week ago, where South Africa was represented by our honourable Minister of Energy, Minister Peters.
Allow me to formally welcome all our international and local delegates to South Africa and specifically Cape Town. Cape Town is not only blessed with Table mountain, which is currently one of the seven wonders of the world, but is also the city where our Parliament is situated. It is also the city where the former President of the ANC and President of South Africa, Mr. Nelson Mandela spent most of his time in prison and where he made his first public speech after his release by the Apartheid regime on 11 February 1990.
Programme Director,
As a country we fully support the Sustainable Energy for All campaign of the United Nations because it ties neatly in with our own developmental objectives of:
1. Ensuring universal access to modern energy services,
2. Increasing the rate of improvement of energy efficiency, and
3. Increasing the share of renewable energy in our energy mix.
As a developing country we fully understand that we cannot discuss Energy Efficiency in isolation from two other very important elements of the modern-day energy discourse namely that of access to energy and renewable energy. Hence, the integration and inter-linkages between various policies and strategies such as the:
- Energy White Paper,
- Energy Efficiency Strategy,
- National Climate Change Response Policy White Paper,
- Green Economy Accord,
- National Energy Efficiency Strategy,
- Integrated Resource Plan 2010,
- Household Electrification Strategy, to name a few.
For this function, I will concentrate only on the topic of Energy Efficiency, which is the overarching theme for the deliberations during this meeting and the workshop that will follow on 2 May regarding Cool Roofs for Buildings.
Ladies and gentlemen;
Energy efficiency is not only about saving energy, but also to decrease our carbon emissions and carbon footprint as a country, and also collectively as a global community.
In 2005, a South African National Energy Efficiency Strategy (NEES) was developed and published to explore the potential for improved energy utilisation through reducing the country’s energy intensity (thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decoupling economic growth from energy demand).
The NEES provides a national target of 12% for the overall reduction in energy intensity by 2015, and also gave aspirational sector energy efficiency improvement targets of:
- 15% for industry and mining,
- 15% for commercial and public buildings,
- 15% for residential,
- 10% for transport and
- 9% for power generation.
We are at a point where we can now gazette the Regulations on the Income Tax Allowance of the Energy Efficiency Savings, Section 12L, which addresses tax allowance aimed at large investments for upgrades, expansions or new facilities that exceed R30 million and R200 million respectively.
We have managed to establish an US$ 90 million national green fund, with US$ 44 million investment in green economy projects having been already approved for our municipalities, state organs, community organisations and the private sector.
An Energy Efficiency Monitoring Methodology Handbook was also developed to provide detailed input data-streams as well as an EE Monitoring System.
With regard to household electrical appliance labelling and standards (S&L), a process is underway to develop minimum energy performance specifications, and also to phase-out incandescent lamps for common use in the country.
South Arica is also promoting Energy Efficiency and Conservation through the expansion of the Solar Water Geyser Programme. We plan to install one million solar water heaters (SWHs) throughout the country.
As part of the Eskom rebate and the DoEs Demand Side Management programme, about 345 000, mostly low pressure systems have thus far been installed. While we are proud of this achievement, the programme was not without some challenges.
The overwhelming majority of the systems installed in South Africa were imported which of cause do not contribute to local job creation. As a result, a new Contacting Model was developed which focuses on local manufacturing of these systems.
The rest of the about 650 000 systems to be installed, will be all locally manufactured. There will also be a larger focus on high pressure systems, since higher energy efficiency gains can be achieved by replacing the current high pressure energy inefficient geysers.
Programme Director,
We acknowledge that by international standards we are in an infancy stage when it comes to energy efficiency of buildings and the technologies associated with it. We are therefore particularly interested in hearing from international and local researchers who have done work in this area, using local conditions so that we can go away from this meeting with a basket of potential solutions that will enhance the effectiveness our energy efficiency programme.
Such research will also strengthening the work of SANEDI, as the country’s national energy development institute. I am aware that there is a lot that is happening is your space on energy efficiency and I urge you to share with South Africa the good work that you doing.
Let me conclude by commending and thanking the GSEP for collaborating on the establishment of this network, as well as the participating countries who recognise the need to take the lead and set the tone for other countries and even Government institutions to follow in implementing some of these initiatives. I would like to affirm the South African’s Government commitment in working with you towards these common goals. I wish you all the best in this initiative and I look forward to continuous future engagement to share both your success stories and challenges.
I thank you.
