Abstract:
The Department of Energy’s ‘new household electrification
strategy’ allows for any appropriate and
affordable technology option to be applied towards
achieving South Africa’s non-grid electrification target
of 300 000 households over the period 2014 to
2025. This paper describes the main legislative and
regulatory framework governing the implementation
of small-scale hydropower (SHP) projects in
South Africa with the aim of attaining the objectives
of the non-grid electrification component of the
‘new household electrification strategy’, and indicates
that it is possible to implement such projects
within South Africa’s complex institutional architecture.
The inclusion of run-of-river type small-scale
hydropower projects for rural electrification in the
2016 updated General Authorisation eased the process
of attaining regulatory compliance in terms the
National Water Act. This implies that these types of
SHP projects would only need to follow a registration
process to obtain the required water use authorisation,
and not a full water use licence application
process.
