South Africa’s environment department rejects floating gas plant

South Africa’s Environment Department has turned down an application to moor a floating, gas-fired power plant in the eastern port of Richards Bay. Anchor Energy LNG’s Nseleni power plant would have had the capability to produce 6 500 MW of electricity, according to Groundwork, an environmental activist organisation.
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Opinion: How can we ensure that Africa’s energy transition aligns with its development ambitions?

In this opinion article, SPEAR Capital partner Martin Soderberg writes about how African can achieve a just energy transition.
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Bedfordview power restored ahead of schedule

Power utility Eskom has restored supply to the Bedfordview substation, two days ahead of schedule. Supply was restored to the substation and affected customers at about 22:00 on December 2.
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Emalahleni owes Eskom over R5 billion, urges its customers to pay or face darkness

The Emalahleni local municipality in Mpumalanga has revealed that it owes Eskom over R5-billion for unpaid electricity. It has, therefore, handed over to its lawyers the accounts of some 30 defaulting customers, in a quest to collect the revenue and pay the debt.
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Genset failure can be dangerous

Generator set (genset) failure owing to a lack of proper maintenance poses a significant business risk, says fire safety company ASP Fire CEO Michael van Niekerk. Backup power supply systems such as gensets are critical to reduce overall electricity demand during load-shedding. However, it is vital that such important equipment is maintained properly and serviced regularly to be able to cope with such outages, Van Niekerk says.
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Data protection critical during power cuts

Although downtime and damage to electrical equipment are common concerns for businesses during load-shedding, many business owners do not sufficiently consider the protection of their data, information technology (IT) company Silver Moon IT manager Raeford Liebenberg tells Engineering News. When power suddenly cuts out and then suddenly switches back on, surges can damage equipment – particularly sensitive equipment, such as hard drives and servers, he explains.
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More growth expected for diesel generators

South Africa’s diesel generator market is expected to grow at a compound yearly growth rate of more than 2% from 2020 to 2025, according to a report released this year by research organisation Mordor Intelligence.   Factors such as an increase in throughput of peaking plants and demand for uninterrupted and reliable power supply are expected to boost the market. However, the availability of cleaner energy alternatives and the advancement of battery technologies may restrain market growth during the forecast period, the report claims.
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Business as usual despite genset demand spike

Generator set (genset) manufacturer Atlas Copco Power Technique business development manager Philip du Plessis says the business is always prepared to try to close any sale that comes its way, regardless of factors influencing the market. “While we do see an increase in inquiries under these difficult circumstances – which is good for us – we still find that general enquires for our gensets come through regardless of load-shedding,” he explains, referring to how bouts of load-shedding have served to increase leads and enquiries for new gensets.
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