Emerging miners highlight impact of energy, logistics constraints on economic growth

The South African economy is limited to 1.5% potential growth a year because there is no productivity growth. National productivity has declined for five years in a row, highlighting the economy’s structural constraints, including in a lack of energy security and logistics capacity, mining industry body Minerals Council South Africa outgoing CEO Roger Baxter told delegates at a recent media briefing. “Unless we stabilise energy availability and get logistics working to transport investment and value to the rest of the economy, we will not get the economy back on track,” he said.
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DPE to appeal loadshedding exemption ruling made by High Court

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has said his department will lodge an urgent appeal to set aside the judgment handed down by the North Gauteng High Court on May 5 that schools, hospitals and police stations must be spared from loadshedding. Judge Norman Davis ordered Gordhan to take all reasonable steps within 60 days to ensure these places of interest are not affected by loadshedding, as it infringes on Constitutional rights.
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Treasury says technical assessment of coal stations to be completed by July

The National Treasury has confirmed that the once-off independent review of Eskom’s 14 coal fired power stations is under way and should be concluded by July. The review was announced by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana during his February Budget when he also unveiled the R254-billion Eskom Debt Relief plan.
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Loadshedding starts to weigh on private sector debt servicing ability

The Experian Business Debt Index (BDI) declined sharply to 0.996 in the fourth quarter of last year, following a reading of 1.591 in the third quarter, reflecting intense and more frequent loadshedding in the period and backlogs at South Africa’s ports.

The BDI reflects the relative ability for businesses to pay their outstanding suppliers or creditors, which indicates the overall health of businesses in the economy.

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Rampant corruption at Eskom drags down South Africa

On a late Thursday afternoon last November, in the midst of rolling blackouts implemented by South Africa’s state-owned electricity company, a contractor at a power station in the eastern Mpumalanga province pulled a plug connected to one of the site’s main generation units. The unit subsequently broke down, ensuring yet another day of nationwide outages.
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Emergency five-year power procurement awaiting Eskom board approval

A procurement and funding strategy empowering Eskom to proceed with a five-year emergency procurement programme has been finalised and will be presented to the State-owned utility’s board for approval during May. National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM) secretariat head Rudi Dicks said on Friday that a Ministerial determination opening the way for the Load Shedding Reduction Programme (LSRP) had  been published by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and was currently awaiting the concurrence of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).
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Ramokgopa says ‘frank’ talks held with JETP partners on possible coal decommissioning delay

Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa reports that “open and frank” discussions have been held with those countries that have agreed to extended $8.5-billion in concessional funding to support South Africa’s transition from coal to renewables about the possibility of delaying the decommissioning of certain coal-fired power stations in light of ongoing loadshedding. Speaking during a briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, Ramokgopa reported that meetings with representatives of the International Partners Group (IPG) that make up the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) had included himself, as well as Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Forestry Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy.
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Karpowership permitted to resubmit Richards Bay bid

Karpowership secured permission from South Africa’s environment department to refile an application to moor a ship-mounted power plant in the eastern port of Richards Bay as the company’s stalled plans to affect a 1 220 MW electricity supply contract regains momentum. The Turkish company withdrew its submission to deploy the 450 MW plant earlier this year after it faced a complaint that it hadn’t notified a competitor, which had its own plans for the port. On Wednesday, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment dismissed a complaint by a nonprofit against Karpowership’s plan to moor a similar plant at Saldanha on South Africa’s west coast.
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Loadshedding will be reduced to Stages 3 and 4 over the weekend

Power utility Eskom says that, as a result of lower weekend demand and the return to service of some generating units, Stage 3 and 4 loadshedding will be implemented this weekend. Since yesterday morning, a generating unit each at Hendrina, Lethabo and Tutuka power stations have returned to service.
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Treasury engages municipalities on debt owed to Eskom

Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses the longstanding and growing problem of municipalities’ outstanding debt to power utility Eskom: the  National Treasury’s engagement with municipalities on a scheme to potentially write off their debt to Eskom; and the conditions that may be placed on municipalities wanting to participate in the scheme.
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