Municipal credit risk poses big challenge as Eskom gears up to implement virtual wheeling

The credit risk associated with municipalities in arrears to Eskom poses a challenge to the roll-out of the utility’s proposed virtual wheeling platform and is also likely to limit the ability of corporates with distributed facilities to rely exclusively on virtual wheeling as currently conceived to meet their net-zero commitments. Eskom aims to launch the platform – which allows for one or more generators to transact with multiple customers that have disbursed operational footprints, including ones located in municipal distribution areas – in the second half of 2024.
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Former Eskom employees targeted in Sars coal syndicate raids

The South African Revenue Service led a large-scale government search and seizure operation against several alleged members of coal smuggling syndicates across the country on Thursday, including former Eskom employees. “The alleged coal-smugglers and their related entities are active and have a presence in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and Limpopo,” the tax authority said in a statement. “The suspects targeted today include former Eskom employees who facilitated procurement fraud, as well as other individuals involved in the diversion of high-grade coal.” Sars said it established that the suspects had contravened several tax laws, including non-registration for income tax, failure to submit tax returns, under-declaration of income, claiming undue VAT refunds, and making false submissions. Sars put the loss of revenue to the fiscus by the syndicates at over R500-million. Coal smuggling syndicates have been a consistent problem for Eskom. Often, trucks transporting coal to power stations are diverted to specific coal yards, and high-quality coal is swapped out for low-grade product, scrap or rocks. When the lower-grade products are used at the station, they cause infrastructure damage, rendering them unable to generate electricity, leading to more loadshedding. Sars Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said the raids were a massive breakthrough in ongoing investigations into the syndicates.
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South Africa targets coal-smuggling syndicate across five provinces

The South African Revenue Service and other government agencies said they disrupted a coal smuggling syndicate operating across five of the country’s nine provinces. The search-and-seizure operation targeted former employees of state power utility Eskom Holdings “who facilitated procurement fraud,” the agencies said in a statement on Thursday.
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Study under way into producing green direct reduced iron at mothballed Saldanha Works

Steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) is moving ahead with a study into the production of green hydrogen directly reduced iron (gHDRI) at its mothballed Saldanha Steel Works, in the Western Cape. Market and product development head Jerry Dungu told participants at an industry conference that the JSE-listed group had signed a memorandum of understanding with a “developer of transformational energy solutions” to advance the production of gHDRI at the plant.
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Chinese firms showcase value of digital twinning in hydropower plants, metal factories

As infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems gears up to host its 2023 Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure, on October 12, three Chinese finalists in the process and power generation category have illustrated the efficiencies that can be achieved with digital twinning. The finalists presented their projects to a panel of independent judges to determine the ultimate winner of the category, having used digital technologies such as Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, iTwin Platform and Bentley Open Applications to maximise efficiency and achieve cost savings for clients.
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Africa can and should harness its hydrogen potential for development

Harnessing the potential for renewable energy and green hydrogen production, or replacing carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms in the energy value chain, can build peace and stability in Africa, petroleum company Conex Liberia MD Amitahb Prasad has said. “By 2035, Africa can produce 50-million tons of competitively priced green hydrogen. The expected global demand for green hydrogen is 607-million tons by 2050. In comparison, Africa’s demand for green hydrogen and its derivatives is expected to reach 10-million to 18-million tons a year by 2050, but with a production potential much above that.
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Cape Town’s rooftop solar applications reach new record; 100MW-plus already installed

The City of Cape Town says its “rooftop solar boom” has reached a new record, with August seeing the highest ever level of solar photovoltaic (PV) installation applications.  More than 1 500 small scale embedded generation (SSEG) applications were received in August, which is a 50% increase compared with July, the previous record month at around 1 000 applications. 
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Only 28 of the 136 munis owing Eskom R58bn-plus approved to participate in write-off scheme

Only 28 municipalities have to date been given approval by the National Treasury to participate in the Eskom Municipal Debt Relief Support Programme, which was announced in the February Budget as part of a R254-billion debt-relief package that has been extended to the utility. The programme is designed to enable Eskom to write off municipal arrears debt, which stood at R58.5-billion at the end of March with 136 of the country’s 257 municipalities in arrears. In September, Eskom indicated that its outstanding municipal debt had increased to above R65-billion.
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MTN’s Nyati to succeed Makwana as Eskom chair

The chairperson of South Africa’s ailing power utility Mpho Makwana has quit and will leave Eskom Holdings at the end of the month. He will be replaced by former MTN Group executive Mteto Nyati.
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Kusile Unit 1 supplying 720 MW to grid, Eskom confirms

Eskom has confirmed that Unit 3 at the Kusile coal-fired power station is currently providing 720 MW into the electricity grid using a temporary flue that bypasses the flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) pollution control system. Unit 3 was restarted on September 30, just short of a year after it as well as units one and two became inoperable on October 23, 2022, after a slurry build-up in the Unit 1 flue led to its collapse, damaging the other two flues in the west chimney they share in the process.
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