The Department of Energy today Wednesday, 31 March announced that the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Energy has approved the stakeholder engagement process. This process is a roadmap that is outlining the public participation process that will underpin the formulation and finalisation of the all important Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2).
The IRP2 is a plan that will spell out in clear detail the energy mix that the country will implement in the next 20 years.
The Minister of Energy Ms Dipuo Peters said: “The stakeholder engagement process will facilitate the participation of interested and affected parties in the development of the much awaited and all important IRP2 which is expected to outline how we intend to meet the country’s electricity requirements.”
The objective of the process is to provide stakeholders with the opportunity to participate in areas where they have an interest. This will also afford them an opportunity to comment fully and transparently even on issues that are located outside the IRP2 process such as the integrated energy plan.
It is the intention of the department to host a workshop with various stakeholders in order to enable government to share with them matters such as planning challenges, approaches, and considerations that are an inherent part of the IRP.
“The department respects and acknowledges the disparate and sometimes conflicting interests of various stakeholders. It is therefore our intention to balance these varying interests and eventually emerge with a credible country plan,” Minister Peters said.
Our consultation will include inter alia the importance, the role and the scope of the IRP2, the need to balance the security of supply, the country’s growth priorities, and affordability of various technologies as well as carbon emissions.
There is also a need to look at such complex matters as the quality of data and the assumptions that will form the basis of our decisions. Various stakeholders have already shown a great deal of interest in the following areas which will require some debate.
These are:
* the role and feasibility of carbon commitment and renewable energy
* the role and feasibility of a coal phase-out
* the role of nuclear power
* the need to complement the IRP process with water, transportation as well as primary energy planning.
“We are accordingly issuing a call for interested parties to register on our database of stakeholders for consultation with regard to the development of the IRP2 process. We are issuing an advert which will require information that will be used for inclusion in the IRP,” Minister Peters concluded.
Enquiries:
Bheki Khumalo
Cell: 082 773 2388
Issued by: Department of Energy
31 March 2010
Thandi
