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To unlock investment, Ramaphosa promises to ‘remain seized’ with resolving power crisis

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who cut short his international engagements as South Africa once again descended into Stage 6 load-shedding, has acknowledged that priority has to be given to solving the electricity crisis if the country aims to attract the investment required to raise growth and tackle high levels of unemployment. Writing in his weekly newsletter following a meeting in Washington DC with US President Joe Biden, where it was agreed that a joint task force on trade and investment be established to increase business ties between the two countries, Ramaphosa said: “First and foremost, we have to overcome the electricity crisis”.
September 20, 2022 by

Alliance aims for 380 GW of global offshore wind capacity by 2030

Newly forged multistakeholder alliance the Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA) has revealed its aim to increase installed global offshore wind capacity by 670%, from 57 GW in 2021 to 380 GW by 2030.  The aim of the GOWA is to add 35 GW on average every year across the 2020s and a minimum of 70 GW each year from 2030, culminating in 2 000 GW by 2050. 
September 20, 2022 by

Eskom launches three programmes to procure 1 000 MW to bolster capacity

State-owned power utility Eskom on September 19 launched three programmes to procure more than 1 000 MW for the national grid, which will initially focus on generators capable of supplying more than 1 MW to the grid. The aim is to sign the first power supply agreement during the course of the current week and for the power to start flowing through the grid as soon as possible.
September 19, 2022 by

EnergyDrive experiential education unit to teach children about new energy technologies

The EnergyDrive experiential education mobile unit, which will visit more than 3 000 school learners in Mpumalanga during this week, features a solar roof structure, biogas digester, a photovoltaic (PV) panel display unit and a solar hot water display unit and helps to teach learners about these new energy technologies. The walls of the mobile container are made up of a battery bank, PV components, a television and display cupboards, making it an inspirational and experiential teaching aid.
September 19, 2022 by

Eskom seeks R16.9bn for diesel as it ups assumed OCGT load factor to 12%

Eskom is requesting the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to approve diesel costs of R16.9-billion for its upcoming financial year in line with a material upward revision in the assumed load factor of its diesel-fuelled open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) from 5% to 12%. The increase is designed to accommodate a steep reduction in the expected energy availability factor (EAF) from the State-owned utility’s coal-dominant fleet, which has been reduced to 59%.
September 19, 2022 by

Load-shedding to drop to Stage 5, but another unit has tripped

Load-shedding will drop to Stage 5 at midnight as Eskom works overtime on repairs, but it is still battling breakdowns, it said on Monday.  Technicians managed to return four units to service at Camden, Kriel, Kusile and Kendal respectively overnight, but had to take a unit offline at Duvha as it developed a boiler tube leak.  Planned outages are 5 411MW and breakdowns currently amount to 16 326MW, Eskom said. 
September 19, 2022 by

Ramaphosa races home as South African energy crisis escalates

South Africa is teetering on the brink of its most severe power cuts yet, just two months after the government announced emergency measures to try and end intermittent outages, prompting President Cyril Ramaphosa to cut short an overseas trip to oversee the response to the crisis. State power utility Eskom Holdings, which provides the bulk of the nation’s electricity, began cutting 6,000 megawatts from the national grid over the weekend — equivalent to the most on record — to prevent the collapse of the national grid and its executives warned there was a risk the situation could deteriorate further. The rand weakened to a two-year low against the dollar on Monday, while shares of mining and manufacturing companies slumped.
September 19, 2022 by

Rand hits R17.70/$ low as SA suffers Stage 6 load shedding

The rand weakened to R17.70/$ for the first time since 2020 on Monday morning, with investors digesting a deteriorating outlook, as well as the economic fallout for SA of Stage 6 load shedding. In early trade the rand had lost 0.8% to R17.739/$, bringing its year to date to above 11%, while it has now lost about 22% since its year-to-date high of R14.48/$ reached in late March.
September 19, 2022 by

Eskom seeks to buy 1 000 MW of existing electricity as it declares Stage 6 and warns of another …

Eskom aims to approach the market imminently with an offer to buy up to 1 000 MW of surplus electricity that it believes could be immediately available from existing independent power producers (IPPs) and large companies with their own generation capacity, such as Sasol and Sappi. CEO André de Ruyter reported on Sunday that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan had given the utility permission to approach the market on an urgent basis, but he also indicated that the proposed purchases had not been canvassed with or approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), which will host public hearings this week on Eskom’s request for a 32% tariff hike in 2023.
September 18, 2022 by