SOUTH AFRICA’S RENEWABLE ENERGY INDEPENDENT POWER PRODUCER PROGRAMME ( REI4P )

1. SOUTH AFRICA’S RENEWABLE ENERGY INDEPENDENT POWER PRODUCER PROGRAMME (REI4P) 2014 REVIEW REPORT:

2. WHO WE ARE South African EGI Active organisations: • Project 90 by 2030 ( – host of EGI-SA for 2014). • AIDC • ConsumerFair • GeaSphere • One Million Climate Jobs Campaign Supporting organisations: • GroundWork • SAFCEI • WWF-SA • Cullinan & Associates • Greenpeace-South Africa  EGI has partners in 11 countries around the globe and is coordinated by the World Resources Institute. EGI-SA contact: richard@90x2030.org.za Http://www.egi-sa.org.za/

3. EGI-SAElectricity Governance Initiative of South Africa • EGI-SA is a collaborative partnership between a number of civil society organisations, which draws on the global expertise and experience of the international EGI project, and is also more informally associated with other civil society organisations.The aim of EGI-SA is to build a roadmap towards a positive electricity future for South Africa, by: • Producing expert analyses and research to inform decision-making processes, • Building the capacity of civil society to engage in these processes, • Advocating for transparent, inclusive governance that results in legitimate decisions that uphold public interests.

4. 40 diverse stakeholders were interviewed in three sites from: De Aar in Northern Cape, Saldanha in the Western Cape and Jeffrey’s Bay, St Francis Bay, Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape. Among others, stakeholders included: NGOs, local government, trade unions, community groups, ward committees, RE project community trustees and management staff, local councillors, sports associations, reporters, police and the Department of Labour

5. Renewable Energy Independent Power ProducerProcurement Programme (REI4P) The goal of REI4P is to deliver 3,725MW of renewable energy by 2016, and to contribute towards social-economic and environmentally sustainable growth. These proposals (bids) are evaluated in three phases, according to specific criteria. To date there have been 3 complete rounds (bidding windows) with a total of 64 approved RE projects out of 216 bids submitted so far

6. Description of economic development requirements with respect to local communities (Tait 2013)

7. Findings 2014 • Increase of renewable energy uptake • Government capacity to manage the REI4P • The role of local government • Who decides on local benefits for communities? • Creating new decent jobs for locals – how local is a local job?

8. Increase of renewable energy uptake and the revised integrated electricity plan Electricity needed by 2030

9. Analysis of REI4P MW allocation and remaining (DoE November 2013)

10. The composition of the Evaluation team for the REI4P (DoE 2012, DoE 2013).

11. Location of the renewable energy projects to date http://www.energyblog.co.za

12. Envisaged timetable for REI4P

13. Government capacity to manage the REI4P

14. The human capacity allocation to the different DoE branches (DoE budget vote 2014).

15. Budget allocation (R m’s) to the different DoE branches (DoE budget vote 2014). 97% of clean energy budget goes to CCS and Fracking

16. Community Engagement • Consistent failure across the study area to engage with communities transparently • Failure to set up meaningful institutions that can allow local communities to participate in their own local economic development planning. • Existing local economic planning frameworks such as the IDP are not participative • Risk of ad hoc development plans for specific geographic areas • Corruption and poor labour practices

17. Community Engagement • Community trusts benefit elite • Ad hoc non transparent benefits increase community conflicts • International case studies provide empowering experience • Inter-sectoral lessons can be drawn on – eg mining sector • Weak and ineffectual engagement, potentially exacerbating existing community conflicts within already marginalised communities

18. Access to information • REI4P tender documents on a website • Registration and R15 000 to access • Socio-economic development plans not available at local government level

19. Summary of the jobs created over the three windows for Solar pv, wind and solar CSP (adapted from Eberhard 2014) Summary of the window 3 jobs per province (DoE 2013) Jobs measured in job years – 20 job years is 1 person employed for 20 years

20. Local Jobs? • Few local contractors benefited • International firms scam criteria (technical local) • South African but not within 50km radius • Limited skills transfer • Social ills due to influx of workers? • Sufficient demand to drive manufacturing?

21. Recommendations • Lift the “cap” on renewables • Increase staff and budget to reflect increasing renewables proportion of energy mix • Review REI4P design to address unintended negative community impacts • Localisation evaluation needed and promotion of skills transfer • Include specialist community development practioners in REI4P formal process • Review of Community Trust system is needed • DoE to promote meaningful communication and public access to information • Monitoring and Evaluation system that includes community and parliamentary oversight • All tiers of government and civil society stakeholders need to engage in order to enable best practice

22. Take home message Renewable Energy capacity in South Africa must be expanded beyond the REI4P. Within the REI4P, the intention to create additional social benefits are applauded. However, the bidding process and the design of REI4P are flawed and have resulted in some unintended consequences that need to be addressed urgently.

23. THANK YOU