Archive for month: March, 2023

Due to some recovery in generation capacity over the past 48 hours, loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 3 from 05:00 on Wednesday until 16:00. Thereafter, Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented until 05:00 on Thursday. This pattern will continue, until further notice. Over the past 48 hours, the repairs to the damaged towers from Cahora Bassa in Mozambique were completed and restored to full capacity, Eskom said in a statement. A generating unit each at Arnot, Grootvlei, Kriel, and Tutuka power stations has been returned to service. During the same period a generating unit each at Lethabo, and two units at Kriel power stations were taken offline for repairs. The return to service of a generating unit each at Hendrina and Medupi power stations is delayed. Breakdowns currently total 13 949MW of generating capacity while 4 322MW of generating capacity is out of service for planned maintenance.

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel reports that that energy one-stop-shop to speed up the regulatory processes required for private investment in electricity generation has been established and is being managed by InvestSA. In a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, Patel reported that the one-stop shop had been established in line with the Energy Action Plan (EAP) to tackle loadshedding, which has since been declared a state of disaster.

There were two main challenges South Africa faced, in addressing its inadequate electricity generation capacity, Independent Power Producers (IPP) Office Head Bernard Magoro highlighted at the RES4Africa conference in Cape Town, on Monday. They were the fast-tracking of approvals by government, and capacity constraints in the country’s national grid. The IPP Office is an agency of the national government, established to procure mainly electricity generation capacity from independent power producers, as well as provide advisory services.

The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has launched a campaign to highlight the role that the wind energy industry plays as an employer as South Africa’s Energy Action Plan gains momentum to deliver new power generation and steer the country’s accelerated energy transition.

“We are launching the campaign ‘I Work In Wind’ to showcase people across this industry who are already employed to tell their personal stories, really inspiring the next generation of wind energy professionals and encouraging more participation in the sector,” explains SAWEA CEO Niveshen Govender.

Major changes were indeed under way in the country’s electricity sector, South African Presidency project management head Rudi Dicks assured the RES4Africa Energy Security Conference in Cape Town, on Monday. “There is a risk that we miss the [reform] wood for the [crisis] trees,” he said. South Africa has suffered for years from scheduled power cuts, called loadshedding, imposed by the State-owned national electricity utility Eskom, because of its lack of generating capacity. “Loadshedding is the result of poor policy decisions or actions not taken,” he explained.