The head of South Africa’s Independent Power Producer Office (IPPO) has confirmed that it has called the bid bonds for 14 projects that failed to advance to commercial close during the fifth bid window (BW5) of the country’s renewables procurement programme. Bernard Magoro told lawmakers this week that one preferred bidder had agreed to pay the bid bond, but that the other 13 were still the subject of a legal dispute.
Power and water utilities City Power, Johannesburg Water and Rand Water have advised that an emergency power outage will be implemented at the Eikenhof substation from 08:00 to 16:00 on November 17 and that it will impact on the supply of water in parts of Johannesburg. The outage is necessary for City Power to make urgent repairs to and conduct maintenance at the substation, where a recent assessment found defects, including hot connections on the two transformers that supply power to Rand Water.
The Energy Council of South Africa has called for an overhaul of the way government procures new electricity generation and storage capacity from independent power producers (IPPs), describing the current model as outdated. Addressing the Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy, CEO James Mackay highlighted the important role that the IPP Office had played in establishing credible procurement processes and in overseeing what was widely regarded globally as a successful programme.
Data centre and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure company Teraco has started building a new 40 MW hyperscale data centre at its Isando Campus in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. The facility, known as JB7, is currently scheduled for completion in 2026 and will incorporate the latest environmentally sustainable cooling and water management designs.
Global carbon dioxide emissions, including those from burning fossil fuels, are set to hit a record high this year, pulling the world further off course from averting more destructive climate extremes, scientists said on Wednesday. The Global Carbon Budget report, published during the UN’s COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, said global CO2 emissions are set to total 41.6-billion metric tons in 2024, up from 40.6-billion tons last year.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has published timelines for the processing Eskom’s retail tariff plan (RTP) application, in which potentially far-reaching changes to the tariff structure are requested. The timeline deviates slightly from the timelines included in Nersa’s consultation paper release to guide those stakeholders intending to comment on the RTP, which scheduled a public hearing for Christmas eve.
The first hot-rolled coil (HRC) has been produced at Scaw Metals’ Union Junction complex in Ekurhuleni, heralding the reintroduction of competition into South Africa’s flat-steel market. The R5-billion steel investment, which has been 75% funded by Absa and Investec and 25% funded by the State-owned Industrial Development Corporation, is also the first new flat-steel mill to be built domestically since Saldanha Steel in the 1990s, but which has since been mothballed.
Information and communications technology infrastructure company Teraco has started construction of its 120 MW utility-scale solar PV power plant in the Free State, which is expected to come online in late 2026. Teraco will own the 120 MW solar PV plant and wheel the renewable energy to its data centres, with the plan to create its own sustainable energy source to power the next generation of client cloud and AI computing applications.
Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramakgopa has confirmed that an independent technical assessment of the R6.1-billion billing dispute between State-owned utility Eskom and the City of Johannesburg’s (CoJ’s) wholly-owned electricity utility City Power will be carried out over the next 14 days. Upon conclusion of the technical assessment on November 25, a final decision will be reached. Both parties have agreed to abide by the findings in full, whatever the outcome.
Government has confirmed that the Independent Power Producer Office (IPPO), which has overseen the public procurement of more than 7 300 MW of operational renewable-energy capacity since 2011, will oversee a pilot programme to procure South Africa’s first independent transmission projects (ITPs). Speaking at Res4Africa’s yearly conference in South Africa, the National Treasury’s Jeffrey Quvane said that the decision had been made in light of the capabilities and frameworks that had been created at the IPPO to successfully carry out public procurement.
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