Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) last month welcomed Cabinet’s establishment of a technical team war room to undertake various interventions to improve electricity supply security over the short- and medium-term, but added that the private sector also had a role to play during the electricity crisis facing the country.

BLSA said in a statement that its members were able and ready to support the implementation of Cabinet’s five-point plan to alleviate the electricity challenges and offered the support of its association and members to promote rapid intervention to deal with the electricity crisis.

BLSA’s support would include the acceleration of demand-side management interventions, particularly those that need to be undertaken with government support; the possibility of the acceleration of replacing diesel with gas; and business’s help in focusing attention on the effect of load-shedding on municipal infrastructure.

Further, BLSA noted that a range of companies were gearing up to respond to the request for proposals for additional sources of cogeneration and coal-fired power that were referred to in the plan.

Business had also identified the hurdles that would need to be overcome to ensure the rapid introduction of short-term power supply opportunities and would be engaging with government on these issues.

Meanwhile, BLSA had asserted that big businesses, especially industrial users, had accepted the reality of reduced supply in the short term, despite the effect that reduction had on the productive capacity of the economy.

To be able to effectively mitigate the effects of the reduced supply on investment and productivity, business had to have certainty on the level of supply available. The most critical challenge was the reliability of the available electricity and the electricity that was promised by government.

This was a challenge that the government had to take responsibility for, BLSA said.

“The current situation has been difficult for everyone in our country and we want to recognise the efforts that all South Africans are making to reduce their own individual energy use. We also want to recognise the efforts made by business to do the same. “However, if we are to grow as an economy, we need to find a way to lift this brake on our economic progress,” said BLSA.