The National Energy Regulator of SA announced on Friday that mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe has taken steps to make the licensing process less onerous for entities that want to generate their own electricity.
Previously all projects that applied for a licence had to obtain ministerial approval for a deviation from the Integrated Resource Plan for their projects as part of the process. Mantashe eliminated this step in a directive to Nersa in February, which the regulator has only just announced. This cuts out a step in the process and should speed up applications, the processing of which has been painfully slow.