The last plan, which mapped out potential power supply scenarios up to 2050, was only released in January. It made provision for a broad range of power sources including natural gas, nuclear and renewables alongside coal, currently the dominant power source.
Energy officials told a news conference the so-called Integrated Resource Plan IRP needed to reflect new data, in particular the sharp improvement in state utility Eskoms performance this year.
After more than a decade of regular power cuts, Eskom has not implemented load shedding since March.
There are substantive changes from the previous IRP, said Titus Mathe, CEO at the South African National Energy Development Institute .
Previous modelling assumed Eskoms energy availability factor a measure of its plant performance would be around 52 and not growing much, while the new assumption was for about 60, with scope for improvement, Mathe said.
