SAWEA CEO Ntombifuthi Ntuli
The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has welcomed a judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissing a case brought by the Coal Transporters Forum (CTF) to set aside power purchase agreements (PPAs) with certain preferred bidders.
CTF had argued that the court should declare all PPAs of the fourth bidding round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme signed with Eskom null and void.
The forum claimed that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa had not properly approved the Section 34 authorisation, which was a prerequisite for the process.
In general, CTF argued in its founding affidavit that the renewables programme would impact negatively on Eskom’s financial performance.
The High Court in March 2019 ruled that the regulator and the Department of Energy had followed all correct procedures before signing the PPAs.
SAWEA CEO Ntombifuthi Ntuli said CTF’s window for continuing to oppose the renewable energy programme had passed, since it only had the Constitutional Court left as an option for leave to appeal, but the timeframe had passed to do so.
She added that the CTF argument had no legal basis and demonstrated little appreciation of government’s commitment to achieving a more diverse energy mix that would build national energy security and address climate change objectives.