South Africa sees climate pact spurring billions in new funding

South Africa expects an $8.5-billion climate-finance package that it’s negotiating with some of the world’s richest nations to attract significant additional funds to help it transition away from using coal to generate electricity. The government is discussing a wide-ranging energy transition plan for the next five years with the UK, US, Germany, France and the European Union as a step toward securing the funds, which will pay for part of the needed investment laid out in the proposal, according to Daniel Mminele, a former central banker appointed to lead the talks for South Africa.
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South Africa, Indonesia get $1bn to close coal plants

South Africa and Indonesia will receive a combined $1-billion from the Climate Investment Funds to replace some of their coal-fired power plants with renewable energy facilities, part of global efforts to cut planet-warming emissions. The allocation of $500-million each to the coal-dependent countries will come in the form of “concessional,” or low cost, finance, the World Bank-affiliated fund said in a statement Thursday.
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Cape Town’s waterfront increasing its independent power, water capacities

Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront was planning to double its solar energy capacity as part of its response to the ongoing power cuts imposed, on a rolling basis, across the country by national electricity utility Eskom, and known in South Africa as loadshedding. This was stated by V&A Waterfront (V&A) CEO David Green at a media briefing on Wednesday. He reported that the directors and executives of the V&A had determined that loadshedding was likely to be a long-term problem, given that so much of Eskom’s generating fleet was old and needed replacement. Current installed solar capacity at the waterfront was 2 MW. This would be increased to 4 MW in the near future, although he did not give a timeframe. And there was the potential for even greater solar energy capacity to be installed in the coming years.
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Former Eskom boss Matshela Koko, wife and stepdaughter arrested on charges of corruption

The NPA’s Investigating Directorate have arrested former Eskom acting CE Matshela Koko, his wife Mosima and his stepdaughter Koketso Choma on charges of corruption.   The charges relate to a multibillion-rand contract Eskom entered into with Swiss engineering company Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) in 2015. ABB subcontracted to a local company, Impulse International, where Choma was a shareholder. She received R30-million from the deal, some of which then flowed to Mosima Koko. 
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Energy crisis sparked by Ukraine war to speed up green transition – IEA

The drop in Russian fossil fuel exports after its Ukraine invasion this year will transform the global energy landscape for decades and can help to hasten a green energy transition, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. The IEA’s annual World Energy Outlook acknowledges the economic hit from reduced supplies of Russian oil, natural gas and coal but is keeping an environmental best case scenario in which no investment in new fossil fuel projects is needed.
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Loadshedding to continue into the weekend

Loadshedding will continue into the weekend, but will be dropped to Stage 2 and Stage 1, Eskom said on Thursday morning.  “Stage 3 loadshedding is currently underway until 16:00 on Thursday, thereafter, it will increase to Stage 4 until 05:00 on Friday morning,” the power utility said.
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LHWP Phase II opens for bids for hydropower component

The Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) has kicked off the procurement process for the design and construction supervision of the Oxbow Hydropower Scheme. Interested firms have until March 13, 2023, to submit their bids.
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Details of Eskom debt relief to be unveiled in Feb as loadshedding crimps growth outlook

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has confirmed that government will take over between one-third and two-thirds of Eskom’s R400-billion debt, as intense loadshedding, which government expects to persist for 18 months, contributed to a downward revision to the country’s growth outlook. The National Treasury is now forecasting real gross domestic product growth of only 1.9% for 2022, having projected growth of 2.1% in the 2022 Budget Review published in February.
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Higher revenue collections support consolidation as growth headwinds strengthen

Better-than-expected revenue collection enabled Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to report an improvement in government’s fiscal position relative to the one forecast in the February Budget. However, slowing global and domestic growth together with ongoing power cuts pose a risk to the fiscal outlook, as does the prospect of a higher-than-budgeted public-service wage settlement.
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Komati turnaround will cost close to R8bn, and the World Bank may foot most of the bill

Repurposing Eskom’s coal-fired power station, Komati, would cost around R7.9-billion, project documents from the World Bank show. Eskom has been engaging with the World Bank in providing funding for the re-powering and repurposing of Komati. The power station’s first unit was commissioned in 1961, and it had nine operational units, each with a capacity of 100MW. The last unit is to be decommissioned at the end of October. But Eskom has relied on multiple socioeconomic assessments to determine how to give the power station, situated in Mpumalanga, a second life so that it can continue to support the local economy and livelihoods of those in the affected region.
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