South Africa’s Eskom said it would implement “Stage 2” power cuts between 1600 and 2400 local time (1400 and 2200 GMT) on Saturday and Sunday due to several generating units breaking down and delays returning others to service. The struggling state-owned company resumed power cuts on Wednesday after a pause of 11 days, and implemented them again on Thursday and Friday.
The project by City of Johannesburg (CoJ) utility City Power to retrofit all of Johannesburg’s streetlights with light-emitting diode (LED) technology is gathering pace, providing energy saving and environment-friendly light, CoJ Environment and Infrastructure Services Department MMC Michael Sun says. “I’m delighted that this pilot project is beginning to improve the city of gold’s energy position and positively impact the lives of our residents,” he comments.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) announces that on July 29, the Energy Regulator approved the publication of a consultation paper and timelines to process State-owned utility Eskom’s Fifth Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD5) revenue application for the 2023/24 financial year.
Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele says the reforms under way in the electricity sector – including the removal of the 100 MW licensing threshold for distributed generation projects and the expedited procurement of new capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage – will “supercharge our efforts to modernise and transform the electricity sector”. “Most importantly, these changes will create the conditions for a boom in private fixed investment in the coming years, which will lift our economic growth overall,” Gungubele said during the release of Operation Vulindlela’s latest progress update.
US investors with more than $1-trillion of assets under management are in South Africa to look for investment opportunities. The visit being facilitated by USAID and Prosper Africa, the US government’s initiative to increase trade and investment between African nations and America, started Tuesday and will coincide with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip. Blinken arrives in the country Sunday — his second official trip to Africa. He will also visit the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.