Business and South Africa’s energy sector have emphasised their support for Eskom’s current leadership, who have come under fire for the latest prolonged bout of load shedding, especially from Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe. “We strongly urge that it is a time for calm and well-executed actions, and we express our support for Eskom leadership and staff who are managing through this crisis,” the Energy Council of South Africa, Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), and Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) said in a joint statement.
South Deep, Gold Fields’ Westonaria-based flagship gold mine, is entering the final stage of a four-part strategic journey it embarked on in 2017 to stabilise the operation, improve sustainability and longevity, reduce operational costs, improve efficiencies and ensure it meets the criteria to be classified as a mine of the future. From the third quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2018, Gold Fields started the journey to reshape South Deep by conducting the first stage of the strategy to identify and analyse challenges at the mine, which it plans to address, says Gold Fields South Deep executive VP Martin Preece.
The Health Promotion Levy (HPL), commonly known as the sugar tax, still poses the greatest threat to the continued existence of the sugar industry, says South African Sugar Association (SASA) executive director Trix Trikam. The HPL has resulted in the beverages sector reformulating its products away from sugar to avoid the levy, leading to substantial revenue loss for the sugar industry.
German industrial group Rheinmetall plans to build its first South African plant to produce photovoltaic (PV) panels for the power-deprived local market, a company executive told Reuters on Thursday. The decline of debt-crippled state utility Eskom has this year led to the worst power cuts on record in Africa’s most industrialised economy. This week most South Africans have been without power for at least six hours a day.
A new report published by Trade and Industrial Policies Strategies (TIPS) has indicated that research gaps must be addressed to better establish employment numbers and characteristics, including the quality of jobs, in the venture capital firms supplying the renewable energy industries in South Africa. The report – ‘The state of research on renewable energy value chains in South Africa: Firms and employment characteristics – outlines challenges, such as inconsistent employment measures and methods, including differing uses and applications of job metrics.
Two new reports published by Trade and Industrial Policies Strategies (TIPS), relating to solar and wind energy respectively, point out that electricity market reform is likely to drive an increase in solar and wind energy projects across the country, which will, in turn, increase demand for components and services in these industries. For solar, the report – ‘Insights into the solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing value chain in South Africa’ – indicates the critical need for reliable and sustained demand. as well as policy certainty, in the solar PV space.
The South African Wind Energy Associations (SAWEA) has expressed dismay that none of the 23 wind-project bids submitted as part of government’s latest and expanded renewables procurement round were selected preferred bidders and expressed concern about the current system for allocating grid access. Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe announced on December 8 that only sixth solar projects, with a combined capacity of 1 000 MW, had been appointed a preferred bidders following the sixth bid window (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Progamme.
A further 13 solar photovoltaic (PV) projects have signed agreements with Eskom and government raising to 19 the number of projects that are now set to proceed under the much-delayed fifth bid window (BW5) of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). All 19 projects, which have a combined investment value of R34.3-billion, were selected as preferred bidders in October last year, when a total of 25 wind and solar PV projects were named.
The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) says the solutions that are being thrown at struggling State-owned energy utility Eskom are clearly not solving the problem and both Cabinet members and the Eskom board are not getting on top of the situation.
The entity believes the level of instability in the provision of power has serious negative implications for South Africa, given the country’s high unemployment rate and moribund economy.
Power utility Eskom has decided to delay the start of the planned maintenance shutdown of Koberg Unit 1 to allow time to stabilise the power system and recover some generation capacity. The unit has been online for 407 days since the last outage and the utility now plans to start the refuelling and maintenace outage on December 10 if grid conditions have recovered to ensure stability of the system.
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