Brown says Ministers to meet in mid-Feb to seek ‘answer’ to Eskom-IPP deadlock

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown says a meeting, involving herself, the Ministers of Energy and Finance, as well as Eskom, should take place by mid-February to seek an “answer” to the current standoff over the signing, by Eskom, of 37 outstanding power purchase agreements (PPAs) with renewables independent power producers (IPPs). In an address at Eskom’s quarterly ‘state of the system’ briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Brown argued that the addition of more capacity at a time of excess capacity would result in additional costs to the company and increase electricity tariffs. “In my opinion, the Eskom board would fail in its duty if it did not consider the burden of high costs on consumers.”