The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, or Geapp , will work alongside partners to prepare projects for investment to repair and upgrade dilapidated grids, said Ziyad Cassim, the group's South African country representative.
"We will shortly announce a coalition of partners who are going to support us in the municipal space," Cassim said in an interview. "We have three partners who are going to co-invest with us." He declined to identify them because an official announcement is yet to be made.
South Africa's drive to cut its dependence on coal, which accounts for about four-fifths of its power generation, has been slowed by an inadequate power transmission and generation network and the absence of projects able to accept investment. A US$9.3-billion climate finance pact with some of the world's richest nations that was announced in 2021 has distributed less than 20% of that amount as a result.
The government, which ran electricity generation and transmission as a monopoly for decades, has now allowed significant investment in power plants and is preparing to accept private investment into transmission. Municipalities are expected to follow suit by seeking investment in their distribution grids.
