South Africa needs around R390 billion to upgrade and expand its transmission grid. This is to allow new energy projects to come online, ensure the country has surplus electricity, and enable the economy to grow.
Renewable energy is decentralised, and generation facilities have predominantly been built in the country’s Cape provinces with rich renewable resources. Eskom chair Mteto Nyati and electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the utility would need around R390 billion over the next ten years to build sufficient transmission infrastructure.
To illustrate this, South Africa needs around 1,500 km of transmission lines a year for the next decade, but the country only manufactures around 400 km yearly. While the shift to renewables is a short-term cause of South Africa’s grid capacity problems, a much longer-term cause has led the country to this point.