The Mercury

Department of Energy slammed for rushing IRP

- ANA

CIVIC action group Outa yesterday accused the Department of Energy of giving the public too little time to weigh in on the draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which sees South Africa adding 20 gigawatts of nuclear energy to its power grid over the next three decades.

“Outa has written to Minister of Energy Tina Joemat-Pettersson objecting strongly to the rushed and defective public engagement process for comment on the IRP,” the group said.

“The IRP is some six years late and now the government appears to be rushing this process through without providing the public and civil society organisati­ons with sufficient time to participat­e.”

Contrived bill

Ted Blom, Outa’s director for energy, said the group urged Joemat-Pettersson to withdraw the IRP and allow the Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) to be finalised first. The two long-awaited draft documents were released simultaneo­usly by the minister late last month.

“Only once the IEP has followed due process and is promulgate­d can the IRP commence, from which South Africa’s electricit­y plan can be meaningful­ly applied. Until then, the current rushed process becomes meaningles­s.”

Blom said it appeared that the IRP had been contrived to endorse the government’s policy of nuclear power expansion. “Outa believes that the draft IRP has been reverse-engineered to force nuclear into the energy mix and this in itself raises numerous questions about why the Department of Energy is rushing this process.

“Outa’s energy team has identified several critical flaws in the IRP documents and methodolog­y. When combined with the defective engagement process, it becomes clear to us that citizens’ rights, entrenched in the constituti­on, are being trampled upon.”

He said if the IRP were left challenged, Eskom would proceed with haste to procure new reactors.

A process of public consultati­on on the IRP is due to start today with presentati­ons by the department around the country. The deadline for written submission­s is February 15. Greenpeace has urged Joemat-Pettersson to extend this until at least March 31.

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