Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa reports that a “degree of convergence” has been reached between his Ministry and the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA) regarding private sector participation in the electricity grid and no further Cabinet approval is required ahead of implementation. Speaking at one of his regular updates on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, Ramokgopa said Cabinet had given its approval for him to proceed, together with the NTCSA, on finalising a model to unlock private financing for the expansion and modernisation of the grid, which had become an impediment to the integration of new generation capacity.
State-owned electricity utility Eskom will reduce planned maintenance to 3 000 MW during the upcoming winter season and will seek to keep unplanned breakdowns to below 14 000 MW in a bid to navigate the high-demand period with limited loadshedding. During the summer period, from September to the end of March, the utility set a target of restricting unplanned breakdowns to 14 500 MW during the high-maintenance summer months, when average planned maintenance levels of 7 000 MW were targeted.
Technology group Cassava Technologies subsidiary Africa Data Centres (ADC) has broken ground on the construction of a solar farm in the Free State in collaboration with solar power company Distributed Power Africa (DPA) Southern Africa. The first phase will entail the construction of a 12 MW solar plant to power ADC’s CPT1 carrier-neutral data centre in Cape Town, with subsequent phases extending to the company’s two Johannesburg data centres.
Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has granted Sasol South Africa permission to employ a load-based limit to regulate the sulphur dioxide (SO2) of its Secunda boilers in a decision upholding the JSE-listed group’s appeal of an earlier National Air Quality Officer (NAQO) determination stipulating the use of a concentration-based limit. Sasol lodged an appeal on July 31, 2023, after NAQO published a determination on July 11, 2023, stating that it was not empowered to grant permission to Sasol to apply an alternative limit for SO2 after a once-off postponement had already been granted to the Secunda operations.
South Africa’s State power utility, stung by reports about the health impacts of emissions from burning coal, said it’s spending billions of dollars to reduce them and has an ambitious target to reduce output of one of its most dangerous pollutants. Eskom Holdings said it’s committed to a R67-billion plan to cut emissions and by 2035 aims to reduce its output of particulate matter by 70%.
Leading African independent power producer Globeleq says the 153 MW/612 MWh Red Sands project, which was recently awarded preferred bidder status under South Africa’s inaugural battery storage public procurement round, will be the largest standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) in Africa and will carry an investment value of R5.7-billion. It is smaller than the 225 MW/1 140 MWh BESS deployed at Scatec’s Kenhardt project, also in the Northern Cape. However, Kenhardt is a hybrid solar-battery project developed under the separate Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, which requires the plant to produce 150 MW of dispatchable electricity daily from 5:00 until 21:30.
Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses the latest developments with regard to the procurement of new electricity generation capacity and storage.
The National Rationalised Specifications (NRS) Association of South Africa has announced the approval of the NRS 048-9, Edition 3, Electricity Supply – Quality of Supply: Code of Practice (NRS CoP) by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).
Energy management and automation group Schneider Electric has launched two new entry-level market products – the GoPact Moulded Case Circuit Breaker (MCCB) and the Manual Transfer Switch (MTS).
The products have been designed with the basic entry level of the market in mind that require robustness and reliability, without the premium cost of circuit breaking and automatic transfer switch solutions.
Given South Africa’s ongoing energy crisis, there remains much debate around whether gas should be included in the future energy mix and, if so, how much. Advocates argue that the fossil fuel is a necessity and a step up from coal – since it produces fewer carbon emissions when burned – but many still oppose its large-scale incorporation into, owing to the global shift towards clean energy technologies such as renewables, battery storage, green hydrogen and even nuclear.
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