Rise in planned maintenance, spike in breakdowns trigger ‘unwelcome’ Stage 6 return

Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has attributed the “unwelcome” resumption of Stage 6 loadshedding, during which business and residential areas experience rotational cuts for as much as half of the hours in the day, to a combination of higher planned maintenance and a spike in unplanned breakdowns. During a virtual briefing convened after Eskom reported that it would implement Stage 6 until further notice, Ramokgopa reported that Eskom had started ramping up planned maintenance as it exited the high-demand winter period, during which such outages had been capped at 2 500 MW.
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Court says it cannot compel CoJ to supply electricity to illegally connected apartment block

The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) highlighted on Tuesday that its current debt, which is sitting at close to R48-billion, is unsustainable.   The municipality explained that a lot of the debt owed included money for rates, taxes, sewer, electricity and water, owing to illegal connection of services by businesses, residents and big organisations.
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Solar energy company launches ambitious minigrid rollout initiative for Africa

US-based rural Africa and Asia-focused net-zero energy company Husk Power Systems (Husk) announced on Tuesday the launch of its “Africa Sunshot” solar minigrid roll-out initiative. The initiative was launched at the Africa Climate Summit, currently under way in Nairobi, Kenya. Africa Sunshot is intended to achieve the creation of 2 500 net-zero solar energy minigrids to generate electricity for African communities with no, or only weak, connections with power transmission grids, within five years. The initiative will be funded by $500-million in equity and debt that Husk expects to mobilise.
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