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Coal crucial for alleviating poverty and loadshedding

Despite the negative impacts that coal-fired power stations have on the environment and local populations, localized energy solutions developer NET Energy owner Mike Blenkinsop has stressed that the detrimental impact of removing coal-fired power capacity from the South African electricity system would also be significant, as many rely on the coal industry for work opportunities.
August 17, 2023 by

Urgent electricity bill – key to solving SA’s power crisis – delayed by admin bungle

An urgent piece of legislation that is key to overcoming SA’s energy crisis has yet to be introduced into Parliament, it emerged on Wednesday, raising the fear that it will not be passed this year. The Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill was approved by the Cabinet in March with the promise by Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni that it would be prioritised. 
August 16, 2023 by

Norwegian entities unpack requirements for more investor support in African energy projects

Norwegian entities, as existing investors with more than 3 GW of renewable energy projects in South Africa, are eager to facilitate more business between the two countries and further into the African continent, particularly as South Africa is undertaking regulatory reforms to liberalise its energy market.  In a panel discussion hosted by Oslo-headquartered renewable energy company Scatec on August 15, Norwegian Ambassador to South Africa Gjermund Sæther said South Africa was a leader on the African continent, showing increasing potential for business-to-business cooperation.
August 16, 2023 by

Coal still has role to play despite naysayers, Menar MD tells conference

Resources investment company Menar MD Vuslat Bayoglu has emphasised that South Africa is on the precipice of a significant industrial revolution. Fuelling this revolution, however, will require a consistent and reliable baseload power source that can only be produced by coal-fired power stations, despite calls from more developed countries for South Africa to reduce its coal-fired power station capacity to achieve sustainability and carbon dioxide emission reduction goals, he said on the first day of the Southern African Coal Processing Society International Coal Conference, in Secunda, Mpumalanga, on August 15.
August 15, 2023 by

Karpowership ‘very confident’ South African projects will proceed but open to shorter …

Turkish energy company Karpowership, which has been seeking to implement three ship-based power projects in South Africa after being named one of the preferred bidders in the government’s Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP), is “very confident” that the projects will proceed, despite prolonged regulatory setbacks. “It has been two years of going through all these processes and the only remaining licence to get are the environmental licences,”  Karpowership South Africa and regional director Mehmet Katmer said during a visit to one of the company’s current projects in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last week.
August 15, 2023 by

Godongwana provided PFMA consent for unbundling of Eskom’s distribution unit in 2022

Government has again moved to dismiss suggestions that the unbundling of the Eskom generation, transmission and distribution businesses into three separate entities can be regarded as privatisation, noting that it is in line with a long-standing policy as well as a restructuring plan for Eskom approved by Cabinet in 2019. “We are not selling anything,” the Presidency’s Rudi Dicks stressed at a regular briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, hosted weekly by Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
August 13, 2023 by

With R9.2bn spent since April, govt insists Eskom is not exceeding diesel budget

Government reports that Eskom has spent R9.2-billion on diesel since the start of the State-owned utility’s financial year on April 1, which it claims to be marginally below an initial budget for the period of R9.7-billion. The Presidency’s Rudi Dicks provided the figure during a regular weekly update on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, during which Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa reiterated that it had always been Eskom’s intention to use the open-cycle gas turbines to reduce winter loadshedding.
August 13, 2023 by

PCC spotlights need for gender equality in Just Energy Transition

The Just Energy Transition (JET) framework inadequately addresses the issue of gender inequalities, says the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), explaining that the need for gender equity is being prioritised in further planning processes in the JET, with an emphasis on implementation. In a dialogue hosted on August 11, the PCC unpacked how the oversight of gender inequality had been raised on various platforms by stakeholders, especially since climate change exacerbates existing inequalities and increases the vulnerability of women, the marginalised and underrepresented populations.
August 11, 2023 by