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Salga advises Maluti-a-Phofung municipality against signing active partnering agreement with Eskom

The South African Local Government Association (Salga) says it does not support the proposed active partnering agreement between State-owned utility Eskom and the Maluti-a-Phofung local municipality, in the Free State, which purports to assist the municipality with operational challenges to secure revenue to enable payment of its bulk electricity account. Under this arrangement, Eskom intends to take over the electricity distribution function, including all related revenue, and out of the hands of the municipality.
November 18, 2022 by

CSIR launches Energy Industry Support Programme for small businesses

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has launched a five-year Energy Industry Support Programme (EISP), which is being co-funded by the Electricity and Water Sector Education and Training Authority (EWSeta). The EISP was launched at the Evolving Electricity Landscape – Opportunities For Investments conference hosted at the CSIR’s premises, in Pretoria, on November 17.
November 18, 2022 by

Stage 4 to continue until further notice, but beware of ‘erratic’ loadshedding changes

Eskom announced on Friday afternoon that the Stage 4 loadshedding it implemented in the early hours of the morning will continue until further notice “Changes in the stages of loadshedding will be more erratic due to the absence of the buffer that is normally provided by the diesel generation capacity between generating unit breakdowns,” the power utility said. Since Friday morning a generating unit each at Kendal and Kriel power stations were taken offline for repairs. There have also been delays in returning to service a unit each at Arnot, Grootvlei, Hendrina and Tutuka power stations. There is 4 887MW out on planned maintenance, while another 15 320MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns
November 18, 2022 by

Cabinet approves measures to restrict scrap exports, but details yet to be released

Cabinet has approved a “comprehensive package” of policy measures to restrict trade in scrap metal to limit damage to public infrastructure, including the ongoing theft of copper cables, which is said to be costing the economy R46-billion yearly. Details of the measures have not yet been released, but it has been confirmed that they will involve restrictions on the trade of waste scrap and semi-processed metals.
November 18, 2022 by

Milken-Motsepe Prize in Green Energy launched

The Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation have launched the Milken-Motsepe Prize in Green Energy, a $2-million prize competition to reward entrepreneurs and innovators working to address accessibility to green and renewable energy. The winning individual or team will be awarded $1-million, with an additional $1-million to be disbursed throughout the competition as finalists progress and field test ideas.
November 17, 2022 by

Eskom must issue fresh boiler maintenance tender after Babcock’s disqualification is declared …

The Gauteng High Court has reviewed and set aside an Eskom decision to exclude Babcock Ntuthuko Engineering from contracts to maintain and repair of boiler pressure parts and high-pressure pipework across 15 power stations. The contracts are valued at R16.3-billion. The contracts were awarded in October 2021 to Actom and Steinmuller Africa, with Babcock disqualified by Eskom for failing to submit a welding certificate, which the utility described as a “mandatory returnable for evaluation”.
November 17, 2022 by

COP27 draft leaves out pledge to phase down all fossil fuels

Countries negotiating at the climate summit in Egypt are on track to reject calls for phasing down the use of all fossil fuels, snuffing efforts by India and key developed nations to target oil and gas as well as coal in an overarching deal at COP27.

The Egyptian presidency published the first draft of its so-called “cover decision” and largely kept last year’s pledge made at Glasgow to “accelerate measures towards the phase down of unabated coal power” and phase out fossil fuel subsidies. It also stuck with a commitment to keep global warming to 1.5 ºC. It highlighted that countries are currently falling well short on meeting the climate finance needs of developing countries.

November 17, 2022 by

IAEA launches initiative highlighting nuclear power’s role in mitigating climate change

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an autonomous specialised agency of the United Nations, has launched a new initiative to help countries understand the role nuclear energy can play in reducing their carbon emissions. The initiative, Atoms4NetZero, was announced by IAEA director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi at the COP27 Climate Summit, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. COP27 was the first Climate Summit at which the IAEA had a pavilion, named the Atoms4Climate pavilion. “Nuclear energy …
November 17, 2022 by