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Firms partner to deliver SKID substations to miner

Local medium voltage (MV) ac motor and transformers manufacturer ArmCoil Afrika and engineering services company Schneider Electric have partnered on the provision of a skid mobile substation product line that will provide continuous power to a large mining conglomerate’s South African operations. The companies have already completed two skid substations (SKID 961 and SKID 979), with the third and fourth units currently in the manufacturing process. A SKID is a prefabricated substation, assembled on a self-supporting transformer, creating an easily transportable design that can be quickly energised.
May 12, 2023 by

Ramaphosa denies JETP ‘incoherence’ or being forced to transition from coal

President Cyril Ramaphosa has denied that there is any incoherence in his Cabinet regarding the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with developed countries that have agreed to extend $8.5-billion in concessional financing to support South Africa’s transition from coal to renewables. He was replying to a question posed by the Good Party’s Brett Heron on whether recent conflicting comments by various Cabinet Ministers on the future of South Africa’s coal plants was not at odds with South Africa’s JETP obligations.
May 11, 2023 by

Urgent skills development roadmap required for a just energy transition

To successfully effect a just energy transition (JET), South Africa needs to urgently identify the skills required and create a skills development roadmap, as it could take between five and ten years to ready the skills system for new value chains and competences, South African Presidency project management office head Rudi Dicks has said. Speaking at the International Research Conference on Skills for a Just Transition, in Johannesburg, on May 11, he said the cross-cutting nature of skills interventions for the JET meant that South Africa needed to establish strong coordination and planning mechanisms.
May 11, 2023 by

Cape Town rolls out generators, inverters at its facilities as power crisis deepens

The City of Cape Town’s (CoCT’s) Facilities Management Department says it has installed power generators at a number of facilities over the last few months as South Africa’s power crisis continues to deepen.  Facilities that received generators include the Hillstar municipal building; Ottery municipal complex; Rochester Road Metro Police building; Pinelands municipal building and the Wesfleur municipal building, in Atlantis.
May 11, 2023 by

Youth foundation sets out to bolster EV production, maintenance skills in South Africa

The International Youth Foundation (IYF) South Africa has released a Competency Framework for the Electric Vehicle (EV) Industry in South Africa, which serves to help education institutions bridge the knowledge and skills gap in the automotive industry and improve the competencies needed for the growing EV industry.
Particularly, South African students lack skills related to producing and maintaining EVs – which most stakeholders in the automotive industry agree is the vehicle of the future.
May 11, 2023 by

Numsa condemns Gordhan’s appeal against loadshedding exemption

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has criticised Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan for his decision to appeal the High Court judgment which orders public schools, healthcare facilities and police stations to be exempt from loadshedding. Further, the judgment directed the department to take all reasonable steps to ensure the sufficient supply of electricity in these critical sectors of the economy.
May 11, 2023 by

Lack of action by law enforcement agencies prompted private Eskom investigation – Makgoba

Former Eskom interim chairperson Professor Malegapuru Makgoba believes there would have been no reason for former CEO André de Ruyter to pursue a privately funded intelligence investigation of corruption and sabotage at the State-owned utility had the law enforcement agencies done their jobs. Some of the contents of the intelligence report were raised by De Ruyter in a bombshell television interview in February, in which he claimed that senior political figures had direct links to coal cartels operating in Mpumalanga.
May 10, 2023 by

Mantashe says release of ‘IRP 2023’ for comment is imminent

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe reports that an updated version of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electricity will be released imminently for public consideration. Responding to a question posed by the Democratic Alliance’s Kevin Mileham during a Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy as to why the revised IRP had not been released by the end of March as promised, Mantashe said the “rough IRP framework has been completed, it is going to be opened for discussion”.
May 9, 2023 by

Short-term solutions to energy challenges lie with private sector, incentives

It will take about three years to improve the energy availability factor of State-owned power utility Eskom’s coal-fired power stations to an acceptable level of about 65%, as generator units must be taken offline to do deep maintenance. This means Eskom’s energy availability will drop further before it can be improved, said energy expert Chris Yelland on May 9 at the Africa Automation Technology Fair.
May 9, 2023 by