Deputy Minister Samantha-Graham Maré delivered the following remarks at the Renewable Energy Seminar at The Gallagher Convention Centre In Midrand, Johannesburg

Minister Ramokgopa;
Officials from the DMRE;
Leaders from the private sector and civil organisations;
Colleagues and honoured guests.

Welcome to the first IPP Summit hosted by the newly-formed Ministry of Energy and Electricity. This is an important occasion for us to openly discuss the successes and challenges we face in our united effort to drive the renewable energy sector as a vital component of energy security, economic growth, and job creation.

We firmly acknowledge that Independent Power Producers have played, and will continue to play, a pivotal role in diversifying South Africa's energy mix and accelerating the adoption of renewable energy which has directly contributed to the end of loadshedding, and helped South Africa on the path to achieving our climate goals.

I would like to applaud all those present, especially Eskom, who have worked tirelessly to end the crippling effect of loadshedding on our economy and given us all new hope for
the future of our country. Nearly 200 days without loadshedding is reason to be proud.

I would also like to acknowledge that in November it will be 14 years since the renewable energy bid windows opened - opening a new chapter for South African energy production.

We can applaud the excellent work done by the IPP Office in making this public procurement programme a success - one that has been internationally acknowledged as a standard for such programmes, and proof of the transformative power of successful Public Private Partnerships for driving economic growth and job creation.

An excellent feature of the IPP Office has been their determination to consistently improve the process - taking lessons learnt from previous bid windows and applying them to future bid windows.

Today we can celebrate the fact that over 7GW of power has been added to the national grid, with the future goal of adding over 12GW - all from bid windows 1-7.

Now this is an incredible achievement, and we want to keep as much of this positive momentum going as possible.

I am excited that the Minister has tasked me with the responsibility of oversight for the implementation of the South African Renewable Energy Master Plan. SAREM is not just another government plan. It is a key catalyst in the industrialisation of renewable energy value chains in our country that will drive economic growth and job creation. The substantive part of this plan has been concluded and is in the process of Departmental approvals. In the meantime, we are busy with the SAREM Implementation Plan development that will be released before the end of this calendar year when SAREM is launched.

The Department is also busy with a comprehensive review of the IRP 2023, which was poorly received by the sector when it was launched earlier this year. We have undertaken a comprehensive and inclusive review of the Plan, based on the valuable inputs from a multitude of stakeholders, including some of you present today, and intend submitting the final IRP to Cabinet for approval before the end of the financial year.

Finally, the Gas Master Plan is undergoing a a series of model simulations, following comments received from key stakeholders to ensure alignment with the updated IRP. This will support the vision of using gas as a transition fuel for power generation, in line with the national 6000 MW gas to power strategy. We aim to conclude this by the end of the financial year.

I believe in the incredible potential of this sector to become one of the leading sectors in South Africa's future, and I firmly believe that the billions of investment we've seen to date will continue to grow year on year.

I look forward to working in collaboration with everyone in the room today to identify any challenges or issues that are holding us back, and finding real solutions that can unlock economic growth and job creation.

Today the first session will focus on the successes in government - please allow us to have the first chance at the spotlight, but we promise it will be worth your time. We have our Minister, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, the Head of the IPP Office, Mr Bernard Magoro, and the Head of the new National Transmission Company, Mr Segomoco Scheppers to chart the way forward.

The second session will have government doing something that we are not always good at - listening to the private sector. But I promise that today we are listening actively to learn and then try to implement what we have learnt. As we all know, government's challenge is implementation, but I believe that through active listening, proper self-reflection, and being open to change, we can do better.

Ladies and gentlemen, the future is bright, it is filled with renewable energy, and it holds the potential for realising the goals of the Government of National Unity, of which I am proud to be a member. I look forward to hearing from everyone here today, and know that our ears, hearts, minds, and doors are open.
We've done good, but we can and must do better.

Media Enquiries: Tsakane Khambane, Spokesperson in the Ministry of Energy and Electricity on 082 084 5566