National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) outlines the next steps to
provide reliable, fair and affordable access to the electricity grid and market to enable
sustainable, inclusive economic growth.
At today’s official launch of the NTCSA, Priscillah Mabelane, the
NTCSA Board Chairperson and Segomoco Scheppers, the Interim Chief Executive Officer,
NTCSA outlined the key focus areas that have been developed in the three months since 1
July 2024, when the company became an independent, wholly-owned subsidiary of Eskom
Holdings Ltd.
“The NTCSA Board and Executive Team have already committed significant time and effort
to building this company. We are fully dedicated to realising the benefits of the Electricity
Regulation Amendment Act (ERAA) and ensuring that the NTCSA has the structures and
governance to contribute meaningfully to South Africa’s energy security and inclusive
economic development,” said Priscillah Mabelane, NTCSA Board Chairperson.
“Achieving independence will allow us to operate more efficiently, reduce conflicts of
interest, and focus exclusively on our mandate; maintaining the stability of the transmission
grid, managing electricity flows, and ensuring open access to the network for all players in
the market,” stated Segomoco Scheppers, the Interim Chief Executive Officer NTCSA.
The NTCSA has four strategic objectives:
• Delivering reliable and sustainable access to affordable power.
• Creating an inclusive and competitive electricity market.
• Ensuring a financially sustainable business.
• Operational and digital transformation for efficiency and effectiveness.
Strong relationships and alignment with key stakeholders, clear and efficient internal
governance processes, world-class talent, capabilities, and a high-performance culture
underpin these objectives.
Key areas of focus
Following a strategic review of the NTCSA’s corporate plan, in the short-term over the next
three to six months, the NTCSA will pursue the delivery of its strategy. This will be done by
focusing on bringing an accelerated Transmission Development Plan (TDP), setting the
operational unbundling activities as per legislative requirements, and establishing a fair,
competitive market for electricity.
Delivering an accelerated Transmission Development Plan (TDP)
It is anticipated that in the next five years, there will be 30 GW of utility-scale renewables
connected to the grid by the end of 2029. A step change will be required to ensure that this
new generation can connect to the electricity transmission grid and to get it to the point of
demand. This will require accelerating the construction of new transmission infrastructure
through effective project planning, development and execution.
The NTCSA is actively investigating solutions to execute the TDP at the required scale and
pace. The NTCSA will determine principles for refining its capital project delivery model, and
consider a project delivery portfolio including in-house, Engineering, Procurement and
Construction (EPC), Procurement and Construction (PC), and Independent Transmission
Projects (ITP).
The NTCSA is committed to local economic development and will aim to develop local
supply chains and upskill the local workforce to deliver the required infrastructure rollout,
while still prioritising efficiency.
Operational unbundling activities
The Electricity Regulation Amendment Act (ERAA) was signed into law in August 2024 and
provides for the establishment of an independent Transmission System Operator (TSO) five
years after the law takes effect. The NTCSA must be able to operate as an independent
company and take steps to facilitate the ownership unbundling. This includes establishing a
new operating model and the appropriate internal processes, systems and governance
structures required to operate.
The NTCSA will, in due course and after consultation with Eskom Holdings and the
Department of Electricity and Energy (DoEE), provide a high-level roadmap with timelines
to enact all requirements of the ERAA and develop transitional arrangements to be ready to
give effect to the legislation.
The creation of the NTCSA will provide open, fair, and transparent access to the national
grid for both public and private participants and will contribute towards improving the
efficiency of the electricity sector. The system operator will use generators in a way that will
be most beneficial to the consumer and will ensure a balanced, stable network.
Establishing a fair, competitive market for electricity
The Market Operator (MO) of the NTCSA is required to provide a transparent, nondiscriminatory trading platform for market participants. The MO must develop the
Market Code which will establish rules to govern the future competitive electricity
market. The Market Code will provide the foundation of day-ahead energy and reserve
markets, intra-day auctions, and a balancing mechanism to facilitate physical energy
trading and will ensure the clearing and settlement of these trades in a timeous and
efficient manner.
The benefit of a competitive market is that it improves customer choice and supplier
efficiency and promotes an efficient price for energy and associated services.
The NTCSA will focus on the key activities to operationalise the MO with NERSA as a
key stakeholder. This will include the approval of the market code and supporting
governance, the definition of the license conditions and its approval, as well as the
approval of the Eskom generation and distribution vesting contracts for the Central
Purchasing Agency (CPA), which includes the wholesale tariff.
