Members of the South African Iron and Steel Institute (SAISI) have come out in full support of the proposed six-month ban on the export of scrap metal from South Africa. SAISI members include ArcelorMittal South Africa, Cape Gate, Columbus Stainless, Force Steel, Scaw Metals, SA Steel Mills and Unica Iron and Steel, while Safal Steel and Grinding Media are affiliated members.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has published a list of the most recent 35 renewables projects – including a 100 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the Northern Cape – to be registered following a recent market reform allowing for large-scale distributed generation projects to proceed without a licence. The projects were officially registered during the August 22 meeting of the Nersa regulator executive committee, which also registered the first two 100 MW solar PV projects in May and subsequently registered 16 distributed-generation projects in June, with a combined capacity of 211 MW.
Energy and chemicals group Sasol expects to invest the bulk of the R15-billion to R25-billion it is budgeting to facilitate a 30% reduction in its carbon emissions by 2030 between 2025 and 2027, having spent only modest capital on such projects to date. The expenditure forms part of the JSE-listed group’s yearly ‘maintain and transform’ capital budget, which is expected to rise to between R26-billion and R27-billion in its 2023 financial year.
South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom is considering disconnecting the City of Tshwane, which includes the nation’s capital, Pretoria, due to the municipality failing to pay its outstanding debt. Tshwane breached the electricity supply agreement it has with Eskom by failing to pay R1.6-billion, which was due and payable on Aug. 17, the utility said in a statement on Twitter on Tuesday.
State-owned utility Eskom and the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre (Saretec) have signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to formalise the collaboration between the two entities in developing renewable energy artisan skills in South Africa to support the implementation of Eskom’s just energy transition (JET) strategy. In support of this strategy, Eskom has a pipeline of clean energy projects at various stages of development and has acknowledged that there is a “dire” lack of skills along the value chain.
The IPP Office has announced a new timetable for the upscaled sixth bid window (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPPP) through which government will be seeking to procure a whopping 5 200 MW of new wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity during a single bidding round. Proceeding with the full allocation hinges, however, on the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) securing the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) concurrence with a new Ministerial determination expanding the procurement envelop for solar photovoltaic (PV) beyond that catered for under the existing Ministerial determinations.
Sasol, South Africa’s second-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, sees carbon taxes posing a “significant risk” to its business and warned current proposals could cause it to curtail operations and green initiatives. The government sees the taxes as key to meeting its goal of producing net-zero emissions by 2050, but has faced intense lobbying from companies to make them less onerous.
After three days without load shedding, Eskom warned that Stage 2 load-shedding might be implemented at short notice from 16:00 to 24:00, the peak evening hours, over the course of the week. This is due to power station breakdowns and delays in returning some generating units to service.
Technology group Wärtsilä has been commissioned to upgrade the electrical and automation systems to increase the reliability of the 216 MW Kribi power plant in Cameroon. The order with Wärtsilä was placed by Kribi power development company (KPDC) – a subsidiary of Globeleq, an independent power producer and the owner and operator of power generating facilities across Africa.
Operations and maintenance company Sebenzana APP is helping the Sendou Power Station’s majority owner Barak Fund and independent power producer (IPP) Compagnie d’Electricité du Sénégal (CES) to develop a natural gas-fired power station at Sendou. The gas-fired power plant is part of Senegal’s aim of moving to greater use of renewable energy supported by gas-fired power plants that use natural gas present in the country, says Sebenzana APP MD Andrew Carr.
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