The DA’s private member’s bill to introduce an independent electricity transmission operator by splitting it out of Eskom was harshly criticised by political parties across the board in parliament on Tuesday.
The bill proposes the establishment of an independent transmission company to manage the national electricity grid in the form of a public-private ownership. The IEMO would govern the buying and selling of electricity from electricity generators, including Eskom and independent private power producers. This would ensure that both Eskom and the private sector would have the same access to the electricity market, which will assist in opening up the electricity generation market, says the DA.
The government’s decision to split Eskom into three parts — generation, transmission and distribution — a year ago, has cleared the way for the establishment of a separate transmission company. The Eskom road map, published by public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan last October, also states that the first step in the unbundling would be the creation of independent transmission company.