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Lekela forges ahead with Senegal battery plant, eyes hydrogen projects

Lekela Power, the company with the most renewable energy assets in Africa, plans to soon complete financial arrangements for the biggest battery storage facility in the west of the continent and wants to expand into providing electricity for green hydrogen projects. The Amsterdam-based company intends building a 160 MWh battery plant next to its 159 MW Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye wind-powered power facility in Senegal, said Chris Antonopoulos, Lekela’s chief executive officer, stressing that they are separate projects.
November 22, 2022 by

The Impact Catalyst launches in Mpumalanga

Large-scale, socioeconomic development initiative driver The Impact Catalyst was launched in Mpumalanga on November 21 to promote initiatives designed to leverage collaboration to deliver a collective, cross-sectoral impact.

The Impact Catalyst – founded by Anglo American, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Exxaro and World Vision South Africa – has already been launched in Limpopo and the Northern Cape.

November 21, 2022 by

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