South Africa Energy Action Plan and Roadmap to end Load Shedding

President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled a strong plan of action to reduce load shedding and achieve energy security in his speech to the nation on July 25, 2022. Since then, five crucial actions have been implemented under the supervision of the National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM):

1.    Fix Eskom and improve the availability of existing supply.
2.    Enable and accelerate private investment in generation capacity.
3.    Accelerate procurement of new capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage.
4.    Unleash businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar.
5.    Fundamentally transform the electricity sector to achieve long-term energy security.

The roadmap for government intervention to end load shedding include, among other initiatives, the following:

1.    Importing 300MW – 1,625MW from neighboring countries within 2023
2.    Increase rooftop solar by more than 850MW in 2023
3.    Facilitate 1,597MW of private sector embedded generation projects in 2023
4.    Municipal procurement of 1,500MW in 2024
5.    Facilitate 2,125MW of more private embedded generation projects in 2024
6.    238MW of Just Energy Transition projects and Battery Energy Storage System Phase 2 in 2024
7.    Procure 4,000MW of new pumped storage in 2024
8.    More than 9,000MW of large-scale private sector investment through market reforms in 2024

This presents an opportunity for U.S companies to compete for energy opportunities as South Africa seeks means to solve the energy crisis. However, the main challenge that U.S companies are likely to face is meeting the local content requirements that often come with public procurement. Furthermore, local developers prefer to use solar panels and technologies sourced from China as means to minimize costs and maximize profits. 

Access to the full document on South Africa’s Energy Action Pland and the Roadmap to end load shedding is available here: 

For more information contact: U.S. Commercial Service; U.S. Embassy-South Africa Email:

Office.Johannesburg@trade.gov;  Phone: +27 11 290 3192
Energy interests: Mlamli Mjambana at Mlamli.Mjambana@trade.gov