Eskom presents 6 000 MW fleet recovery plan, but describes 75% EAF target as ‘daunting’

Electricity utility Eskom has outlined a plan to deliver 6 000 MW of much-needed capacity over the coming two years from its own fleet, primarily by recovering production at six underperforming coal stations and also by completing its much-delayed build programme. However, the utility again stressed the need for between 4 000 MW and 6 000 MW of non-Eskom supply to help stabilise the loadshedding-prone system and to provide its generation division with the time and space required to implement maintenance across its neglected coal stations.
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Africa can seize green industry opportunities if policies are clear

Africa can benefit massively from seizing opportunities presented by the global green revolution, including by leapfrogging existing technologies, but this will not happen spontaneously and will require green industrial policy to facilitate developments, German Development Institute sustainable economic and social development head of department Dr Tilman Altenburg said this week. The complexities of the current global clean energy revolution – compared with earlier industrial revolutions that centred on a technology or a related set of technologies – make the planning and sequencing of changing industries and economies to use renewable energy difficult, as the clean energy revolution is expected to impact on a significant range of industries, as well as on mobility, social and economic activities, he stated.
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Eskom’s acting head of generation quits

The acting group executive for generation at Eskom, Rhulani Mathebula, is leaving the utility with immediate effect. This is the second change to the position in almost six months.
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South African experts developing an SMR optimised for African conditions

South Africa had an indigenous design for a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR), a simplified derivative of the country’s State-funded Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project, highlighted nuclear physicist and Stratek Global chairperson Dr Kelvin Kemm in his address to the Energy Indaba conference in Cape Town on Monday. (The PBMR project was effectively terminated in 2009.) This derivative, which was being developed with private funding, was designated the HTMR-100. This was a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (like the PBMR), making it a Generation IV reactor design. It also meant that it did not need water for cooling, allowing it to be deployed in arid areas, away from coastlines. This made the design very suitable for South Africa and much of the rest of the African continent and in fact it had been specifically designed to meet African conditions, including with regard to issues such as maintenance.
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Rich nations stick to coal phase-out as China builds new plants

Rich nations have stuck to pledges to phase out coal power despite the energy crunch in the wake of the Ukraine war but China’s expanding coal fleet risks counteracting the climate impact of the closures, a report said on Tuesday. Countries within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) policy forum and the European Union are on track to close more than 75% of their coal power capacity from 2010 to 2030, the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) said.
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Opinion: African minerals are critical for the green energy transition

In this article, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung – South African Institute of International Affairs scholar Danielle Marais writes about the importance of Africa’s mineral resources for the global green energy transition.
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Analyst sees renewables as only practical way to quickly boost South Africa’s electricity generation

Regarding increasing South Africa’s electricity generating capacity in the immediate future, wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) and hybrid power systems were the “only game in town”, affirmed EE Business Intelligence MD Chris Yelland on Monday. He was addressing the Energy Indaba conference in Cape Town. He pointed out that national electricity utility Eskom had about 100 generators (of different types) and that their availability had been declining for 15 years. Their current availability was about 56% or 57%. President Cyril Ramaphosa‘s desire to significantly increase this over the next two years was “physically impossible”, especially as Eskom had no reserve generating capacity. The long-term maintenance needed to increase availability would require further capacity to be taken offline, thereby worsening availability over the next couple of years!
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