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Glimpse into NECOM’s proposed ‘roadmap to end loadshedding’

The National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM), which is overseeing the implementation of the National Energy Plan announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July, presented a ‘Roadmap to end Loadshedding’ to various partners and stakeholders this week. The presentation has not been formally released and committee is yet to make a public briefing. It is, thus, possible that the roadmap presented will be adjusted, particularly given intensive recent discussions on the crisis and reports that Ramaphosa had “locked NECOM in a room” this week with an instruction to find solutions.
January 20, 2023 by

SMEs must be considered in loadshedding solutions independent of their affiliation

The small and medium-sized business (SME) ecosystem must be included in designing solutions to support them against the effects of loadshedding, and the help must be universal and available to SMEs that are not clients of government agencies like the Small Enterprise Development Agency and the Small Enterprise Finance Agency and the other development finance institutions, says SME organisation Small Business Institute CEO John Dludlu. “The SBI is calling on government to provide speedy, effective and tailored support to struggling SMEs, which are being decimated by the new and unending round of loadshedding.
January 20, 2023 by

Rand set for weekly loss on power crisis

The South African rand was on the backfoot on Friday and set for a weekly loss against the dollar, as crippling power cuts continued to heighten economic uncertainty. At 0640 GMT, the rand traded at 17.2700 against the dollar, 0.1% weaker than its previous close and down more than 2% so far this week.
January 20, 2023 by

Joburg City Power running out of minisubstations amid theft, vandalism

Johannesburg power utility City Power is unable to keep up with the high demand for minisubstations owing to the higher stages of loadshedding, and is losing an average of two minisubstations a day owing to theft and vandalism across its service delivery centres, with the hardest hit being Roodepoort. “The impact of loadshedding on our infrastructure is high, with minisubstations and transformers blowing up or being stolen. Since the recent higher stages of loadshedding, City Power has been losing minisubstations faster than we can replenish them,” it says.
January 20, 2023 by

Circular economy enables value-added by-products

Nature-based solutions assist in creating a more circular economy and by-products from the treatment can create further value for the water treatment industry, says Rhodes University’s Institute for Environmental Biotechnology (EBRU) director Professor Keith Cowan. By-products can appeal to various markets and increase the overall market value of nature-based water treatment processes.
January 20, 2023 by

Challenging transition lies ahead

South Africa’s just energy transition (JET) to a low-carbon economy will not transpire overnight and will remain a challenge throughout the 2023 financial year, professional services firm EY strategy consulting arm EY-Parthenon Africa leader Paul O’Flaherty tells Engineering News. “As with many parts of the globe, South Africa is living in the context of a trilemma. We need to balance money (availability of funding, high interest rates and inflation), energy (availability, affordability and achieving net zero) and supply (cost, sustainability and resilience).”
January 20, 2023 by

S Africa must apply lessons from auto industry to green hydrogen sector – Patel

Lessons from South Africa’s extensive experience in the automotive industry need to be applied as the country focuses on building a green hydrogen sector, which could potentially produce six-million to 13-million tons of green hydrogen and derivatives a year by 2050. “South Africa has some natural advantages – land, wind, solar energy, oceans and endowment of critical minerals needed for green industrialisation value chains.
January 20, 2023 by

100 MW-plus projects registration expected by Q3

The South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) expects private-sector projects exceeding the 100 MW threshold to be reflected on the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) database from the second or third quarters of this year to further increase new generation capacity, says SAPVIA CEO Dr Rethabile Melamu. An estimated 4.3 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity was installed as of 2021 across various market segments, with the total capacity of non-Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) solar PV initiatives registered with Nersa increasing by 1.2 GW since the last quarter of 2021 over the past year.
January 20, 2023 by

‘I don’t build power stations’: Mantashe doubles down on claim he’s not to blame for loadshedding

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe is adamant that he is not to blame for continued loadshedding – even though his department oversees the procurement of generation capacity and not a single megawatt has been connected to the grid during his tenure. In a wide-ranging interview with News24 on Tuesday, Mantashe, who is also African National Congress (ANC) chairperson, not only continued to distance himself and his department from the crisis but doubled down on his comments that effectively accused outgoing Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter and staff at the power utility of treason.
January 19, 2023 by