President Cyril Ramaphosa will chair a special Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to examine a plan by electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to slow the decommissioning of old coal power stations as the country battles with energy supply.

News24 understands that the special Cabinet meeting was called after the African National Congress' (ANC's) national working committee (NWC) on Monday approved a plan that would slow down the retirement of old coal power stations. 

According to two insiders with knowledge of the discussions, the plan suggests that this would be done through public-private partnerships, limiting the financial burden to the fiscus.

Prolonging the life of Eskom coal stations will be in direct conflict with SA's just energy transition and the climate goals it committed to at the COP26 conference in 2021.

A group of foreign governments has pledged $8.5-billion (R155-billion) of concessional funding on the basis that SA meets its nationally determined contributions agreed at COP 26.

The special Cabinet meeting is also expected to focus on the ramping up of emergency power as power-utility Eskom implemented stage six loadshedding. 

Ramaphosa called a special Cabinet meeting as the next ordinary sitting of Cabinet was only due in May. 

One source privy to discussions said Ramokgopa’s plan, first submitted to the ANC’s NWC and now to the Cabinet, would see the retirement date of the Hendrina and Arnot power stations in Mpumalanga postponed. 

Several of Hendrina's oldest units have already been closed and the power station is scheduled, under the Integrated Resource Plan 2019, to be fully decommissioned by December 2025.

It is one of Eskom's worst-performing power stations. Arnot is due for full decommissioning by 2029.

"Two other very old coal power stations are also being considered, but the immediate focus would be on Hendrina and Arnot," the insider said. It is understood that Ramokgopa suggested that the efforts to recommission old power stations should not be funded through the fiscus. "It will be done through public-private partnerships.

So a private company will take over the power station and maintenance, and then they will benefit by selling power to the grid at a premium," the insider said. 

A second insider said Ramaphosa was seized with discussions around how to ramp up electricity supply amid heightened demand.