Following president Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation (Sona) address – during which he undertook to ensure power parastatal Eskom would sign the outstanding power purchase agreements – the deadlock between Eskom and independent power producers (IPPs) appears to have broken.
Following the speech, several IPPs received budget quotes from the power utility on Friday indicating what the cost would be of connecting them to the grid.
IPPs had been threatening to take the battle to court after Eskom said it would not sign on any more IPPs to the grid because of concerns about affordability.
South African Renewable Energy Council (Sarec) chairwoman Brenda Martin confirmed that she had been informed about the budget quotes.
She said Eskom had also approached the IPP office in the Department of Energy to set dates for the signing of power purchase agreements with the producers.
