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Electricity crisis deeply affecting people, businesses; disaster directives need to be …

The electricity shortages in South Africa, which have resulted in continuous loadshedding, are severely affecting people and businesses and, consequently, the economy and employment, specialists from law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) noted during a briefing on March 2. They stressed that any directives issued by ministers during the state of disaster – declared to find solutions to the energy crisis – must be necessary, rational and justified to meet legal requirements.
March 2, 2023 by

Growing African interest in nuclear power signalled by conference this month in Uganda

Calculations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were that, in Africa, some 600-million people and 10-million small businesses lacked a dependable electricity supply. Nor did connection to a national grid guarantee a reliable supply of energy. The World Bank has reported that nearly 80% of the continent’s businesses suffer from power cuts. The continent has a huge need for reliable energy sources. Consequently, Nuclear Business Platform (NBP) MD Zaf Coelho points out, an increasing number of African countries are looking at nuclear power as a source of reliable baseload energy. Hence the second, 2023, iteration of the Africa NBP (AFNBP) conference, which will take place in Kampala, Uganda, from March 14 to March 17. It will be hosted by the Ugandan Ministry of Energy & Mineral Development, and its theme is the “Sustainable Economic Transformation of Africa Through Nuclear Power”.
March 2, 2023 by

Renewables, clean energy technologies limit carbon emissions amid global energy crisis

Global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions increased by less than 1% in 2022, according to new analysis published by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The ‘CO2 Emissions in 2022’ report, which is the first in a new series called the ‘Global Energy Transitions Stocktake’, shows that emissions grew by 0.9%, or 321-million tonnes, reaching a new high of more than 36.8-billion tonnes.
March 2, 2023 by

Retrieved 1999 Eskom time capsule contained warning of likely generation shortfall by 2007

In his letter to the employees of Eskom of 2023, buried in a time capsule in 1999 near to the ‘rock man’ energy statue at the entrance of Megawatt Park, then CEO Allen Morgan highlighted two challenges facing the utility – challenges that subsequently morphed into serious problems that are now weighing heavily on an organisation that marked its hundredth birthday on March 1 with Stage 4 loadshedding. The letter was unearthed together with the other contents of the time capsule at an event held at Megawatt Park on February 15 and attended by both Morgan and then CEO André de Ruyter.
March 2, 2023 by

De Ruyter warned WCape’s Winde to be independent of Eskom soon, ‘there’s big trouble ahead’

South Africa’s only opposition-led province plans to facilitate the construction of almost 6 GW of power generation capacity to counter nationwide electricity shortages and bolster the regional economy. The Western Cape aims to add as much as 750 MW of supply by 2025 and to reach 5 700 MW by 2035, Premier Alan Winde, a member of the Democratic Alliance, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Cape Town office on Wednesday. That should be sufficient to meet demand as the provincial economy expands.
March 2, 2023 by

Procurement of 400 MW of private power to create jobs in eThekwini

The KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive council (PEC) has approved the eThekwini metropolitan municipality’s procurement plan for an initial 400 MW of new generation capacity from independent power producers. This will create 8 000 job opportunities through a public-private partnership (PPP), mayor Mxolisi Kaunda announced at the Energy Transformation Summit, in Durban, on March 1.
March 1, 2023 by

Eskom may be ‘permanently dependent’ on fiscus if reform conditions in debt-relief plan not met

The reform-related conditions outlined by the National Treasury as part of a R254-billion Eskom debt-relief package – including the concessioning of coal power stations to the private sector and allowing for private sector participation in the building and operation of grid infrastructure – “make sense” and are necessary both in the context of the just energy transition and revelations of embedded corruption withing Eskom’s coal supply-chain. This is the conclusion arrived at by a team of economists at the University of Witwatersrand’s Public Economy Project, who have published an analysis and commentary on the 2023 Budget.
March 1, 2023 by

Outa warns state of disaster regulations could result in ‘unaffordable’ generation contracts

Civil society organisation the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) says the newly published state of disaster regulations appear to be intended to allow a quick contract with floating power company Karpowership by fast-tracking or bypassing environmental authorisations, procurement rules, public participation and even legal challenges.

“Outa is determined to continue our legal challenge to review the declaration of a national state of disaster and our challenge to the issuing of the Karpowerships’ generation licences by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa). Both these matters are before court.

“The regulations confirm Outa’s concerns that the state of disaster will be used to remove regulatory provisions and oversight to enable the fast-tracking of unaffordable generation contracts,” it avers.

March 1, 2023 by

PwC says more green incentives are a step in the right direction

In the wake of national government announcing various incentives to get local businesses to invest in renewable energy generation as part of the solution to the national energy crisis, as well as advancing decarbonisation, professional services firm PwC says, equally, businesses have to improve their environment, social and governance (ESG) credentials. Currently, loadshedding is the number one brake on economic and employment growth, the firm states. Aside from the newly announced solar incentives for businesses and households, it says, South African legislation already provides several other green grants, incentives and relief measures that encourage companies to implement climate change mitigation measures.
March 1, 2023 by