Loadshedding threatens South Africa’s platinum supply

South Africa’s worst ever power blackouts are threatening platinum and palladium supplies in the top miner, both now and in the years ahead. Outages last year curbed output of the metals, and the power crisis that’s crimping the economy has worsened in recent months. The nation’s platinum-group metals production will likely fall this year, according to Impala Platinum.
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Shorter contracts should get Karpowerships past the finish line – Mantashe

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says cutting the proposed contract periods with Karpowership from 20 years to 10 years could help government realise its ambitions to procure energy urgently from the floating power stations. Mantashe was speaking at an ANC Energy Dialogue held in Johannesburg on Tuesday, during which Eskom announced that Stages 4 and 5 load shedding would be implemented until Sunday.
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Eskom weighs nuclear fuel impact after US-South Africa pact ends

Power utility Eskom is examining how the suspension of a pact that enables it to import nuclear fuel components from the US will affect its sole atomic plant. The Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy between the US and South Africa expired on December 4. That resulted in Westinghouse Electric Co losing its licence from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to export fuel-assembly components to Eskom’s Koeberg plant near Cape Town.
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IPP Office to launch 513 MW battery storage auction soon

The Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office has confirmed it will soon launch a bid window round for 513 MW of battery storage capacity and hopes to procure another 1 200 MW later this year. IPP Office head Bernard Magoro confirmed during a webinar hosted by Creamer Media and titled ‘South Africa’s Energy Outlook for 2023’, that the country could see a total 1 700 MW of battery storage procured in 2023.
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Congo LNG facility to be developed by Expro for Eni

Energy services provider Expro has entered into a long-term production solutions contract with Eni Congo, a subsidiary of multinational energy company Eni, for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) pretreatment facility in the Republic of Congo. The ten-year contract is expected to generate more than $300-million of revenue for Expro.
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Parliament Committes to visit Eskom amid loadshedding

The portfolio committees on Public Enterprises, and Mineral Resources and Energy and the Select Committee on Public Enterprises and Communication will, on Thursday and Friday, meet various Eskom stakeholders to assess efforts to resolve the crippling energy crisis facing the country. Eskom announced earlier this week that loadshedding will remain at Stage 4 from 16:00 to 05:00 every day, with Stage 3 implemented from 05:00 to 16:00 during the day until further notice.   The committees felt that constant loadshedding was adverse impacting the country and exacerbating its socioeconomic challenges. The meeting will address the security of electricity supply, the operational state of all power stations and governance at Eskom. Solutions to the current loadshedding, as well as alleged sabotage and theft at power stations, will also be addressed at the meeting.
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Eskom asks Cogta for help in getting the City of Tshwane to pay its R1.4bn electricity debt

The City of Tshwane (CoT) has been coming up short on its payments to Eskom for several months and it owes the State-owned power utility R1.4-billion as of January 25.

Eskom has announced that CoT short-paid its November 2022 bill of R660-million and failed to pay its December 2022 account of R780-million entirely.

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Solar geysers mitigating limescale impacts in Limpopo

Airforce Base Makhado, in Limpopo, now has solar geysers designed to reduce the damage of  limescale build-up and the amount of electricity used to heat water in domestic housing. Piloted as one of the projects implemented through a five-year partnership between the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) and the military, this installation is part of ongoing research to ensure sustainable energy, as well as quantify energy, cost and emissions savings through energy efficient and renewable energy interventions.
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AfriForum kicks off Project AfriEnergy with solar PV guide

Civil rights organisation AfriForum has launched the first phase of the organisation’s three-phase plan – Project AfriEnergy – to help solve the prevailing electricity crisis in South Africa.
 
The first phase focuses on short-term solutions, to which AfriForum released a guide to help households investigate and ultimately install solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and lessen their reliance on electricity provided by Eskom.
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US small modular nuclear reactor has achieved design certification from regulator

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued its so-called ‘Final Rule’ for the NuScale Power (NuScale) small modular nuclear reactor (SMR), completing the certification process for design. This made the NuScale SMR the first reactor in its category to be certified by the NRC. Although termed a ‘rule’, the NRC determination was actually a document some 55 A4 pages in length. This meant that, when the company applied for a licence to build and operate an NPP employing its SMR, the design of the SMR itself would not be an issue. NuScale would only need to meet the licensing requirements for the specific site chosen for the NPP.
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