Eskom told the regulator on Tuesday that its immediate focus was on returning 14 coal units to service over the coming four days, in an effort to recover 8 012 MW of coal generation so as to ease load-shedding, which was being implemented at Stage 5. Although the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) hearings are concerned primarily with the State-owned utility’s request for a 32% tariff hike, regulatory members had requested an update on load-shedding and its implications for the utility’s costs during the first day of hearings on Monday.
Business organisation the Small Business Institute (SBI) calls on government to accelerate the implementation of measures to stabilise power utility Eskom, as businesses, and especially small businesses that are supposed to create 90% of jobs by 2030, are suffering from rolling blackouts. “Load-shedding is undermining everything we are trying to achieve as a country – from growth to jobs and poverty reduction. The investment drive by the president is being hobbled by uncertainty arising from unreliable power supply,” says SBI CEO John Dludlu.
Eskom CFO Calib Cassim says that even if Eskom is relieved of R200-billion in debt, the company will soon be back in the same position if it doesn’t significantly raise tariffs, cut costs, and get people and municipalities to pay their bills. Cassim was speaking at the first day of hearings on Eskom’s tariff application to the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) on Monday, where Eskom is asking for a 32% increase for 2023/24.
A signing ceremony will be held on Thursday for three wind projects that were selected in October last year as preferred bidders under Bid Window Five (BW5) of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). In total, 25 wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) projects were named as preferred bidders by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe following a bidding process that was launched in April last year.
The South African municipality that includes the Port city of Durban, eThekwini, has laid out plans to attract R324-billion in power plant investments by 2035 amid the country’s worst-ever electricity outages. This city of about four-million people, South Africa’s third biggest, plans to issue a request for proposals for the construction of 400 MW of power generation capacity later this year or early in 2023, depending on when it gets permission from the National Treasury. The tender could attract R10-billion in investment, Sbu Ntshalintshali, the municipality’s head of energy transition, said in a presentation dated September 13.
South African energy trader Enpower Trading has appointed energy sector veteran Enos Banda as chairperson, adding impetus to its plans to accelerate private investment into power generation and help unlock more than an estimated 5 GW of renewable energy over five years. Banda served as early and transformative post-democracy National Energy Regulator of South Africa chairperson. In the early 2000s, he was also CEO of State-owned Eskom and responsible for the national electrification programme, as well as Eskom’s international independent power producer services, and its operations and maintenance provision in Libya, Nigeria, China, Uganda and the Southern African Development Community region.
Intergovernmental organisation the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its ‘Breakthrough Agenda Report 2022’ says international collaboration will be critical to successfully transition to sustainability, given the global scale and fast pace of change that is required. “Action by governments and businesses individually is necessary, but not sufficient. Well-targeted international collaboration can make low-carbon transitions faster, less difficult and lower cost.
Eskom shed close to 7 000 MW, associated with Stage 7, from the grid on Monday evening. In his daily system updates, Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha tweeted that 6 770 MW were shed on Monday evening.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who cut short his international engagements as South Africa once again descended into Stage 6 load-shedding, has acknowledged that priority has to be given to solving the electricity crisis if the country aims to attract the investment required to raise growth and tackle high levels of unemployment. Writing in his weekly newsletter following a meeting in Washington DC with US President Joe Biden, where it was agreed that a joint task force on trade and investment be established to increase business ties between the two countries, Ramaphosa said: “First and foremost, we have to overcome the electricity crisis”.
Newly forged multistakeholder alliance the Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA) has revealed its aim to increase installed global offshore wind capacity by 670%, from 57 GW in 2021 to 380 GW by 2030. The aim of the GOWA is to add 35 GW on average every year across the 2020s and a minimum of 70 GW each year from 2030, culminating in 2 000 GW by 2050.
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