29 and 30 March 2012, Gallagher Estate, Midrand
Energy is essential to most human activities and is critical to the social and economic development of an economy. One of the key objectives of the Department of Energy is to ensure energy security, which in essence is about ensuring availability of energy resources and access to energy services, in an affordable and sustainable manner while minimising the associated negative impacts of its use. Many factors pose potential threats to energy security including scarce and depleting energy resources, geopolitical instability, inadequate energy infrastructure, and more recently natural disasters. Therefore in order to ensure continued security of energy supply, it is essential that a coordinated and integrated approach to energy planning which takes into account these complex issues be undertaken.
The development of a national Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) was envisaged in the White Paper on Energy Policy of 1998 and the Minister of Energy, as entrenched in the National Energy Act of 2008, is mandated to develop and publish the IEP on an annual basis. The purpose of the IEP is to provide a roadmap of energy policy and technology development future energy landscape in South Africa to guide future energy infrastructure investments.
The last IEP was developed and published in 2003 and preliminary work on the development of the IEP 2012 has already commenced. The Minister of Energy wishes to formally launch its development to ensure that all relevant stakeholders are involved in this process to shape this important policy. The Minister will therefore be hosting a two-day Colloquium on Energy Planning in South Africa.
The colloquium seeks to bring policy-makers, industry players and subject-matter experts as well as other key role players to debate key energy issues and propose mechanisms of how these should be addressed in the IEP.
Day One of the Colloquium will have a high-level focus where Ministers and locally and internationally renowned speakers will share their views and expertise on key issues which the national energy plan should address. An opportunity will also be given to some provincial and local municipalities to share their energy plans and to communicate how these could better be aligned with the national energy plan.
Day Two will have a more detailed focus where the Department of Energy will share their Energy Planning approach as well as provide an overview of current progress. The Programme will also take the form of two breakaway sessions.
Policy will be a considered in the first breakaway session which will focus on the IEP methodology, the scenarios which have been developed for the IEP and the key indicators underpinning those scenarios. Key policy questions that the IEP should address from the DoE point of view will also be presented. The proposed Policy Analysis Framework for weighing up various policy options will also be presented. This will set the context for discussion and debate on the different policy options to be considered within each of the different scenarios.
Modelling will be considered in the second breakaway session and will focus on the models used for energy planning, the key parameters as well as some of the key assumptions. The approaches which have been proposed for the demand projections and optimisation models will be presented and discussed. Various experts on energy modelling and planning will be invited to present on the lessons learned in employing modelling in support of policy development and planning.
For more information please email us at events@dmre.gov.za