Parliament puts pressure on Eskom to sign IPPs

Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Energy has asked the departments of Energy and Public Enterprises to come clean on renewable energy projects and sign contracts with Independent Power Producers (IPPs). According to the Cape Argus, committee chair Fikile Majola told both departments last week he wanted an indication when these agreements would be signed. Eskom has stalled over signing with IPPs for several months. But Majola told the two departments and Eskom that the committee wants answers in the next few weeks. His comments came after Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown and Deputy Minister of Energy Thembi Majola assured the committee that the contracts would be signed soon. However, they did not give dates for the signing of the IPP contracts. Deputy DG in the Department of Energy Ompi Aphane told MPs that Eskom had expressed a willingness to sign the contracts. Aphane said there were various processes that would be undertaken by both the Department of Energy and Eskom before the contracts were signed. Gordon Mackay of the DA said it was ironic that Eskom was telling them about its ‘woeful’ balance sheet and yet it was going to procure nuclear energy, which was much more expensive than renewable energy. But Aphane said the cost of renewables did not include other external factors.