Integrated Energy Plan Update — Gas and Energy Diversification
Theme: Energy planning
Reform at a glance
- What changes
- Update the integrated energy strategy across electricity, gas, liquid fuels and emerging energy carriers.
- Responsible actor (recorded)
- Department of Mineral Resources and Energy / Transnet / NERSA
- Recorded status
- Under review — editorial assessment.
- Milestone described by this status
- Status scope has not yet been independently documented; it may cover only part of this reform.
- Next documented milestone
- Locate the dated draft, consultation notice and adoption decision before stating a completion milestone.
Source review details
Agent-prepared claim inventory from committed snapshot; primary-source checks only where explicitly dated. Pending human review. Proposal summary prepared from the recorded reform scope on 2026-09-20; it makes no claim of implementation or quantified impact. Numerical impacts and implementation claims below remain provisional where the findings identify unresolved checks.
- The department lists an Integrated Energy Plan, but this check does not verify the claimed 2024 update, its draft publication date or the record’s LNG investment and GDP ranges. The electricity IRP and economy-wide IEP must not be conflated.
- Numerical or dated statements require source-by-source verification before reuse as established findings.
- Numerical or dated statements require source-by-source verification before reuse as established findings.
- Recorded status is under_review. Scope of completion and present implementation have not been independently verified in this preparation.
- Recorded owner: Department of Mineral Resources and Energy / Transnet / NERSA. Present allocation of responsibilities requires verification.
- Source recorded on idea; section not yet verified — source not yet verified
- Integrated Energy Plan policy entry — agent checked 2026-09-19
On this page
Description
The Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) provides the overarching strategy for South Africa's entire energy sector — encompassing electricity, liquid fuels, gas, and emerging carriers like hydrogen — complementing the electricity-focused IRP. The 2024 update addresses liquefied natural gas (LNG) importation for peaking power and industrial use, the role of natural gas as a transition fuel displacing coal in baseload generation, city gas distribution networks, and petroleum sector transformation in the context of declining liquid fuels demand. South Africa has no domestic gas production at scale; the Richards Bay and Coega LNG import terminal projects are key infrastructure anchors. The IEP also frames South Africa's hydrogen economy ambitions. As of early 2026, the updated IEP has been published in draft; stakeholder engagement on gas transition pathways remains contested between environmental advocates and energy security interests.
Assessment
Responsible: Department of Mineral Resources and Energy / Transnet / NERSA
Feasibility Assessment
Medium: IEP gazetted; Gas Amendment Bill in Parliament. LNG terminal investment requires private sector commitment (RLTC, Total, ENI). Mozambique gas supply risk adds urgency.
Where the numbers stand
All indicators →- Eskom Energy Availability Factor72%2025
+7 pp from 65% in 2020. Eskom Integrated Reports (Eskom IR)
- Load Shedding (Electricity Shed)0 GWh2025
−1798 GWh from 1798 GWh in 2020. CSIR / Eskom (CSIR Energy)
Next official read on this: Mining: production and sales, August 2026 — due 13 October 2026 (Stats SA schedule).
Series tagged to this idea’s binding constraint. The period beside each value is the latest observation this site holds, which can lag the official release: the series are rebuilt offline from the sources named, not read live.
Stakeholder Landscape
Who backs this reform, who needs convincing, and which interests or red lines shape political feasibility.
Backers
14
2 stakeholders
Negotiation weight
0
0 conditional actors
Opposition weight
0
0 opposing actors
Coalition Read
AI-drafted stances · 0 reviewed
A coalition score needs at least 3 mapped stances, or actors carrying 25% of the map's influence. The stances below are the evidence; the average over this few of them would not be.
Anchor: DTIC (Dept. of Trade, Industry & Competition).
Political Tractability
No reviewed signals · 0% of mapped influence has been reviewed.
DTIC supports energy diversification through gas as it provides reliable industrial energy reducing manufacturing costs.
Interest: Industrial policy objectives — local content requirements, beneficiation, BBBEE transformation, SEZ development, and protection of manufacturing emplo…
Concern: Full logistics liberalisation without local content protections could hollow out domestic manufacturing by reducing input costs asymmetrically for ext…
Engagement path: Logistics and energy reforms include localisation provisions and domestic content requirements; trade agreements include industrial policy safeguards;…
Integrated Energy Plan gas diversification falls within NERSA's gas pipeline regulatory mandate.
Interest: Statutory mandate as National Energy Regulator: licensing, tariff regulation for electricity, gas, and petroleum pipelines; consumer price protection…
Concern: Reform proposals that bypass NERSA licensing (e.g. registration-only frameworks for embedded generation) reduce statutory jurisdiction and create regu…
Engagement path: Regulatory reform must strengthen rather than hollow out NERSA's capacity; adequate resources and staff to handle an expanded regulatory workload unde…
Referenced in OECD Economic Surveys: South Africa
OECD SA Survey (2017, 2020, 2022, 2025). The 2025 survey calls for boosting public investment especially in electricity, water and rail.
Gas is the essential complement to renewables — without flexible generation, variable solar and wind cannot fully replace coal baseload. — DMRE IEP 2023
Implementation Roadmap
South Africa's Integrated Energy Plan — last published in 2016 — predates the LNG import market development, the Orange Basin offshore gas discoveries (Brulpadda/Luiperd), the hydrogen economy strategy, and the current energy crisis. An updated IEP must integrate cross-sector energy planning (electricity, liquid fuels, gas, hydrogen, and efficiency) and provide the long-term demand and supply scenarios underpinning the Gas Master Plan, IRP 2024, and hydrogen export strategy. The DMRE leads in consultation with NERSA, Stats SA, the Gas Task Team, and the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan cluster. The IEP is the strategic foundation without which other energy reforms lack coherence.
Commission multi-scenario energy demand modelling for the IEP 2024 update covering electricity, gas, liquid fuels, hydrogen, and energy efficiency in industry, transport, and households through 2050
Convene the National Energy Planning Taskforce: DMRE, NERSA, National Treasury, DSI (hydrogen), DFFE (emissions), Eskom, and Transnet to coordinate cross-sector planning assumptions
Publish draft IEP 2024 for 60-day public comment; hold industry workshops on gas-to-power, LNG imports, and hydrogen export infrastructure assumptions
Integrate gas diversification scenarios: LNG import terminals at Richards Bay, Coega, and Saldanha Bay; domestic gas development timelines; ROMPCO pipeline capacity expansions from Mozambique
Cabinet approval of IEP 2024 and publication in the Government Gazette; issue updated Gas Utilisation Master Plan based on IEP scenarios
Establish a biennial IEP monitoring process with a cross-departmental energy data committee (DMRE, Stats SA, NERSA) to track energy balances and scenario deviations
IEP 2024 publication Q4 2025; Gas Utilisation Master Plan update Q1 2026; biennial review cycle from 2027
IEP modelling and public participation: R15-20 million within DMRE operational budget; Gas Utilisation Master Plan update: R5-8 million; cross-departmental data committee: minimal marginal cost
No new legislation required. The IEP is a policy document issued by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy. The Gas Act 48 of 2001 and Petroleum Pipelines Act 60 of 2003 provide the regulatory basis for Gas Master Plan elements. ERA Amendment Act (2024) cross-references the IEP for electricity planning purposes.
Germany's National Energy and Climate Plan provides a template for cross-sector integrated planning with mandatory five-year revision cycles. The UK's Energy Security Strategy (2022) demonstrates how an integrated plan can address supply diversification across electricity, gas, and hydrogen. Kenya's National Energy Policy (2018) provides a developing-economy model for integrating off-grid and gas diversification in a single framework.
Evidence & Research
No linked research evidence yet. Coverage is incomplete.
Policy documents
No linked official-document evidence yet. Coverage is incomplete.
Parliamentary record
3 meetingsCommittee sittings this reform was drawn from, most recent first. Each row opens the meeting on this site; the PMG link goes to the source record.
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— A short weekly digest of what moved in SA policy.How to cite
Wilse-Samson, L. (n.d.). Integrated Energy Plan Update — Gas and Energy Diversification. SA Policy Space. https://sa-policy-space.vercel.app/ideas/integrated-energy-plan-update-gas-and-energy-diversification Live page. Data version: 2026-10-10.d2e346d2; data as of: 2026-10-10.
Status History
tracked since Mar 2026- Recorded as Under review when status tracking began — held since at least Mar 2026.Mar 2026
Data as of 2026-10-10 · latest PMG meeting 2026-10-02