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Eskom unbundling, ERA promulgation will demonstrate electricity reform ‘political will’

Energy Council of South Africa CEO James Mackay believes an expedited promulgation of the Electricity Regulation Amendment (ERA) Bill together with the unbundling of Eskom will send a clear signal to stakeholders and investors that the “political will” exists to place the country’s poorly performing electricity sector on a sustainable pathway. He tells Engineering News that South Africa’s current market structure, which is dominated by a single vertically integrated utility, is out of line with the markets in operation in other developed and developing economies and is, thus, an impediment to much-needed generation, transmission and distribution investment.
August 11, 2023 by

Fuel type key to success

Amid ongoing power outages and energy constraints, new approaches to fuel selection and efficiency among chemical plants have become necessary, says boiler and energy plant operations and maintenance service provider Associated Energy Services (AES) commercial director Dennis Williams. Any opportunity to manage the efficient generation and supply of energy carriers, such as steam or thermal oil, presents an opportunity to improve efficiencies in a chemical plant’s main production process, owing to chemical plants being energy intensive.
August 11, 2023 by

Companies collaborate on voltage solutions for large EAFs

Global solutions provider Tenova and leading power conversion company GE Power Conversion signed a Cooperation Agreement in June, combining their efforts on target projects that are aimed at offering and implementing innovative power feeding solutions based on medium-voltage power converters, for electric arc furnace (EAF) or submerged arc furnace (SAF) technologies. Tenova and GE’s collaboration was formed to jointly design and market tailored medium-voltage power feeding systems for EAFs and SAFs, allowing the effective use of high electric power even on constrained grids, while reducing both operating costs and the environmental impact of new and pre-existing furnaces.
August 11, 2023 by

Gordhan insists unbundled distribution business to remain State-owned as he approves Eskom …

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has given an assurance that there is no plan to privatise any of the three Eskom entities of generation, transmission and distribution currently being unbundled in line with a policy initially outline in the so-called ‘Eskom Roadmap’ of 2019. In a statement clarifying a letter sent to the Eskom board regarding the restructuring of the distribution company, but which included the words “approval for sale”, sparking speculation that the business was being privatised, Gordhan insisted that the entity would remain fully State owned.
August 10, 2023 by

AECI commissions 1 MW solar project at Chem Park factory

JSE-listed chemicals group AECI has installed and commissioned a 1MW solar project at Chem Park, its AECI Chemicals manufacturing site, in Johannesburg. The Chem Park project marks the first stage of a four-phase solar programme approved by the AECI executive committee in 2021, and the company plans to eventually install 14.3 MW solar capacity at selected AECI operating sites in South Africa.
August 10, 2023 by

LHDA marks milestone in Polihali dam construction

The Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), consultants and contractors on the Polihali dam have marked an early construction milestone – the diversion of the Senqu river by the pre-cofferdam, and the subsequent diversion of the river into and through the diversion tunnels ahead of the construction of the cofferdam upstream of the Polihali dam wall.  “This is quite an achievement to the engineering fraternity. It is a key moment of the construction programme because unless this happens, no other elements of dam construction can happen. It had to happen now because the timing of it during the winter season without rain was critical.  If you miss it by a week or two, you may miss the entire window by another 12 months.
August 8, 2023 by

Presidency says progress being made to increase grant funding for Just Energy Transition …

The Presidency is exploring several avenues for increasing the grant component in the financing of South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP), following broad-based stakeholder criticism about the limited nature of such funding in the initial $8.5-billion pledge made by various developed countries. The head of the Presidency’s JET-IP project management unit (PMU), Joanne Yawitch, reports that discussions are under way with multilateral funding institutions, philanthropic organisations and developed economy governments about additional grant allocations for JET-IP projects and that the details are currently being finalised.
August 8, 2023 by