President Cyril Ramaphosa. File picture: Phando Jikelo, African News Agency (ANA)
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa says the issue of the energy crisis will be part of the discussions during the investment summit that takes place later this week in Johannesburg.
The Presidency confirmed on Tuesday that the question of resolving the energy crisis would be part of the discussions.
Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel last week also said power cuts remained a concern for investors but measures were being taken to address it.
This comes after Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the government would have to fund projects to fix old power stations at Eskom.
Ramokgopa had visited 14 power stations, where he found that some of the issues were about getting power stations running better and efficiently.
If this was done it would reduce load shedding.
Already the government is earmarking 9,000 megawatts that would be brought on stream by the end of the year.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that following the R1.2 trillion they set out to attract in investments, investors have injected R1.14 trillion.
This will be the fifth investment conference in the last five years.
He said some of the projects were already up and running while others were under construction.
Patel had said the energy crisis has led to some companies investing in the sector.
A company from Saudi Arabia has invested R11.5 billion in the industry.
“They have committed to invest R11.5bn in what will be the largest single renewable energy investment in South Africa to date. Their big part of it is foreign direct investment component complemented by domestic investment. They are building a 100MW tower, what is called concentrated solar power. What is significant about this concentrated solar power is that it includes a 12-hour thermal storage system, which allows the project to, during the day when the sun shines, generate the energy to store it and for 12 hours that energy is still available to be released on the grid. They are entering into a partnership with local players. We expect that by early next year this plant will come into full operation,” said Patel.