Renewable energy trading between Lesotho and South Africa - a legal analysis

Abstract

The SADC Treaty (1992) mandates Renewable Energy Trading within Southern African Countries. Since the SADC Treaty provides only for the broad mandate for cooperation between SADC Member States, the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (2015) was created as a blueprint for regional integration, showing only the stages and the necessary conditions for achieving regional integration. The SADC Treaty provides for the establishment of Protocols in order to facilitate regional cooperation in the SADC region. The SADC Protocol on Energy (1996) portrays regional cooperation through the development of renewable energy trading and energy pooling in the SADC region. The Energy Protocol is operationalised by various SADC secondary instruments. The SADC energy sector achieves regional economic integration through energy trading, which takes place through the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP). Central to the SAPP is the formation of a regional electricity market in order to facilitate the regional energy trade. This study discusses the potential of renewable energy trading between South Africa and Lesotho. Energy trading and energy pooling are express mandates in the SADC legal framework. These mandates also feature prominently in the Lesotho and South African legal instruments, but what is lacking is the legal instrument instructing how the actual energy trading should be regulated. In this study the Lesotho Highlands Water Project is used as an exemplar on which to base recommendations as to what should be included in the instructions.