The European nation will be able to provide some funding once the scope for the grid-expansion project has been determined, according to its special envoy for a climate finance pact between South Africa and some of the world's richest countries. The deal, which was agreed in 2021 and is now worth US$9.3-billion (R165-billion), has been criticised for its slow implementation.
"There is a need for investments in the quality and the quantity of the grid," Rainer Baake, envoy for the Just Energy Transition Partnership , said in Pretoria on Thursday. "We're in a position to provide substantially more money for the grid."
South Africa has suffered intermittent power cuts since 2008 and needs to accelerate the expansion of its grid as its pivots away from coal, which accounts for four-fifths of its power generation, to renewable energy. While the system is robust in the centre and east of the country, where the industrial base and coal belt are, the best solar and wind resources are in the west.
Attempts to expand the amount of electricity its network of transmission lines can carry have been slowed by the bureaucracy involved in a plan to split the national power utility, Eskom Holdings, into generation, transmission and distribution units. While a board has been appointed for the transmission company, there's been no decision on how private investors will be able to participate in building and operating the lines.
Aside from grants, only €1.1-billion in loans from Germany and France has been allocated from the agreement to date.
