South Africa Brings Power to 84% of Households, Targets Universal Access by 2026

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The access to electricity by households in South Africa increased to 84% in 2012, which is more than double the 36% with electricity in 1994, according to the country's Department of Energy.

More than 5.6 million households have received access to electricity under an integrated national electrification program run by the government. Despite this success, the program still needs to provide for 3 million households. The government has a new plan, the "Households Electrification Strategy," to meet the shortfall in access. The plan was completed at the beginning of 2013.

The new strategy indicates that at least 10% of the 300,000 recently electrified houses will be supplied by non-grid technology, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. Under the current program, about 52,000 households already have been electrified by means of solar PV systems, and it is estimated that universal access will be achieved by 2026.

In addition to these programs, a regional "electrification roadmap" is being made by state-owned Eskom (Johannesburg, South Africa) and Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina). The goal of this roadmap is to accelerate the achievement of universal access to electricity by 2030 through country-based, public-private partnerships that enable local markets to work with global low-cost technologies (supply and demand) to scale. Called "The Electrification Roadmap Initiative," it targets 35 to 40 million connections in southern Africa.

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