DA proposes ways to address energy crisis
THE DA has proposed selling diesel to Eskom tariff-free to alleviate South Africa’s electricity crisis in the short term.
It is one of four short-term solutions proposed by DA MPs Natasha Mazzone and Gordon Mackay to ease the electricity crisis.
The party also wants the country to issue rights to private companies to generate electricity through coal, gas and renewables.
Another alternative is to use ships which lie offshore and produce electricity.
These ships are built by a Turkish company and are already used by various countries.
As a final short-term solution, the DA proposes the use of additional open-cycle gas turbines from private companies.
In the medium term, the DA wants to consider investing in large-scale renewable projects.
It also wants the government to commission new coal and natural gas projects, including the requisite infrastructure, requiring a coastal terminal to be built, preferably at Saldanha or Richards Bay. In the long term, the DA supports the government’s ef- forts at providing hydropower from the Grand Inga project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Although the party is in favour of building more nuclear power plants, it warned that processes under way with, among others, Russian companies, were so shrouded in secrecy and driven to such an extent by political motives that the potential for corruption was huge.
In fact, Mackay warned against the extent of the crisis being used to circumvent due process, opening the door for potential corruption.
Mazzone said Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown had to acknowledge that a crisis existed before the government would treat it with urgency.
She pointed to the ongoing problems faced in the construction of the Medupi and Khusile power plants, at the R3.7-billion Eskom had squandered on buying substandard coal, the lack of maintenance of power plants and especially at the way Eskom kept its activities secret, as indicating the government did not show enough urgency in addressing the electricity crisis.