The National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) officially began trading on July 1. This marks a significant milestone in the reform of South Africa's electricity market structure with the hope that it will act as a catalyst to boost efficiency and transparency and improve national electricity transmission infrastructure, the Department of Public Enterprises, Eskom and the NTCSA said in a joint statement.

The NTCSA is a separate, distinct and wholly owned subsidiary of Eskom. It will be responsible for owning and operating the country’s national transmission system, the system operator, the grid strengthening function, energy market services and the international trader.

It will be the transmission system operator and buyer with additional roles when the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill is signed into law, the statement said. It will trade with Eskom generation and independent power producers (IPPs) using the current industry framework. As a market operator, it will provide a platform for generators, consumers, traders and retailers to trade with each other.

Eskom’s legal separation into three distinct entities (generation, distribution and transmission) is aligned with its turnaround plan and the Department of Public Enterprises roadmap.

“The NTCSA will focus on increasing the national transmission grid’s capacity to connect much-needed new power generation capacity. As a wholly owned subsidiary, it will operate under the direction of an independent board while providing open access to the electricity network, as envisaged during the unbundling process,” said Mteto Nyati, Eskom’s Board Chairman.

Eskom will continue to focus on ensuring safe, reliable and efficient operations while accelerating the development of an interconnected transmission system in line with its mandate. “We will ensure non-discriminatory access to the transmission network and seek ways to accelerate the rollout of the transmission grid,” added Nyati.

The NTCSA will operate under the three licences issued by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa:

• Operation and management of the transmission grid.
• Trading in terms of buying energy from Eskom generators and IPPs as procured by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.
• Importing and exporting energy as the trading arm for the Southern African Power Pool.