Electricity 2013: A review of South Africa's electricity sector

South Africa’s electricity generation capacity has, in recent years, been inadequate to meet the country’s demand and much criticism has been levelled at government regarding the electricity supply shortfalls that have affected the country. While the country has managed to avoid a total collapse of its electricity system, power supply constraints have been identified as having the potential to slow the country’s gross domestic product growth outlook. Analysts contend that economic growth of 6% will be impossible if electricity capacity does not increase at a significantly higher pace than the current one. Even with the new power stations that are under construction by State-owned power utility Eskom, the expansion in power capacity is inadequate for the country to achieve its desired growth rate. Recognising that the current electricity shortfalls are as a result of failure to invest timeously in new generation capacity, participants in South Africa’s power sector have emphasised that investment decisions about further new capacity need to be taken soon, as it is believed that the negative impacts of an energy shortfall are much worse than the risk of potentially overinvesting in new energy generation capacity. This report provides an overview of the state of electricity generation and transmission in South Africa and examines electricity planning, investment in generation capacity, electricity tariffs, the role of independent power producers and demand-focused initiatives, among other issues.