President Cyril Ramaphosa has moved to defend the proposed appointment of a new Minister of Electricity in the Presidency, amid concern that the appointee would have overlapping responsibilities with both the energy and public enterprises ministers that could result in “turf wars”. In his response to the debate on the State of the Nation Address, during which opposition parties slammed the proposed new ministerial post as both unnecessary and expensive, Ramaphosa said the energy crisis required effective coordination across several departments and public entities, which would be provided by the new Minister.
As loadshedding becomes the norm, the City of Cape Town is preparing to launch a 500MW tender for dispatchable power in the coming weeks, and it’s looking into shorter contracts with producers. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis announced the upcoming tender at the city’s first council meeting a few weeks ago. The tender for dispatchable power – which can be turned on and off as and when needed – is technology agnostic. This means the city is open to gas-to-power solutions and battery storage. The City of Johannesburg late last year also issued a request for proposals from various Independent Power Producers to limit loadshedding. The City of Johannesburg, governed by Mpho Phalatse at the time, is also technology agnostic when it comes to solving the power crisis and said it is open to solar, battery storage, waste-to-energy and gas-to-power.
Nonprofit the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse is bringing an urgent application against the government aimed at overturning the National State of Disaster over the electricity crisis. The application was lodged in the Pretoria High Court on February 16.
Mining companies are developing and deploying strategies to reduce climate-related risks in the locations where mines are situated, and the ability for gold mines to self-generate power on a practical scale from solar plants is helping to create a viable source of skills and infrastructure that will benefit other sectors, says market development organisation World Gold Council (WGC) CFO Terry Heymann. “We have seen this in several locations across Africa and beyond. In seeking to decarbonise their own operations, many WGC members have been first movers in bringing clean energy to countries and locations where it would otherwise not have been present or affordable. This is a trend that will continue to grow,” he states.
The head of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s infrastructure and investment office warned that the nation’s power, rail and water reticulation systems are in a dire state and that fixing them will take years even if immediate action is taken. In a paper entitled South Africa’s Infrastructure Emergency: An Urgent and Collaborative Intervention, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa gave the country’s infrastructure a D rating. Ports, freight-rail lines, power plants, metropolitan roads, state schools and waste collection were all deteriorating, he said. Public hospitals were also assessed to be in a poor state.
Concern is growing in South Africa and across Africa about the implications of the European Union’s (EU’s) decision to proceed with the implementation of a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) as a way of preventing so-called ‘carbon leakage’ by imposing a tariff on imports equivalent to the carbon prices being paid by European companies. In terms of an agreement reached in December, the CBAM will be implemented later this year and will initially cover the carbon-intensive sectors of iron and steel, cement, fertilisers, aluminium, electricity and hydrogen, as well as some precursors and a limited number of downstream products.
Installed hydropower capacity could double by 2050 and play a key role in supporting the introduction of more variable renewable power, global industry organisation the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) states in its ‘The Changing Role of Hydropower: Challenges and Opportunities’ report. Hydropower plants offer a range of services to the grid that include balancing and ancillary services, while also enjoying a high capacity factor relative to some other renewable energy sources. These are becoming increasingly important in the context of the energy transition and climate change, the agency states.
Diversified energy company Exxaro reports that its commitment to a just energy transition (JET) has resulted in the organisation becoming the only basic resources company, globally, with an improved environmental, social and governance (ESG) rating of Level 4.
As a result of its actionable commitments towards a JET, FTSE Russell’s Green Revenues data model, designed to measure the revenue exposure of public companies engaged in the transition to the green economy, bestowed a Green Revenues Factor rating of 3.64% on Exxaro for the first time ever.
Trade union Solidarity on February 14, during a media conference, shared details of its litigation about the recent declaration of a State of Disaster over the electricity crisis. The matter is due to be heard in the Pretoria High Court on March 14.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has doubled down on his characterisation of the proposed Minister of Electricity as that of a project manager but has denied that such a portrayal reduces the authority of the appointee. In a speech made in response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address, in which the President announced that a new Minister of Electricity in The Presidency would be appointed as part of efforts to accelerate the implementation of the Energy Action Plan announced last year to tackle loadshedding, Mantashe argued that a project management approach emphasised “urgency of execution and delivery”.
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