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UCT research unit shares considerations for REIPPPP going forward

Power auctions are fast becoming the dominant procurement method for renewable energy globally, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, but it is not without its crucial requirements for success.

University of Cape Town (UCT) specialist research unit Power Futures Lab research fellow Wikus Kruger on the first day of the annual Windaba conference hosted virtually on October 26 discussed global trends in renewable energy auctions and what this means for South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

October 26, 2020 by

Nuclear regulator confirms early talks with Eskom to extend Koeberg nuclear plant’s life 

The National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) has confirmed that it is in preliminary talks with State-owned national electricity utility Eskom regarding extending the operating life of the country’s only nuclear power plant (NPP) at Koeberg, north of Cape Town. Currently, Koeberg is licensed by the NNR to operate until 2024. Eskom wishes to extend the NPP’s operating life by 20 years, and informed the NNR of this in July. The utility will make its formal application to the NNR for a license for ‘Long …
October 26, 2020 by

‘Great opportunity’ to tap Mpumalanga’s grid capacity for just transition – IPP Office

The extension of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Development Zones (REDZs) to areas where coal jobs are at risk, but where grid capacity is available, represents a “great opportunity” to connect new renewable-energy generators while also supporting a just transition for coal workers, a senior official at the Independent Power Producer Office (IPPO) argued on Monday. Speaking during the virtual opening of the 2020 edition of Windaba, IPPO head of technical Pervalan Govender noted that government had hitherto not drawn on the REDZs framework, through which 11 geographical areas, including the coal region of Emalahleni, in Mpumalanga, had been earmarked for the clustering of wind and solar plants.
October 26, 2020 by

Ethiopia slams pressure after Trump remark on destroying dam

Ethiopia slammed international pressure regarding its long-running dispute with Egypt and Sudan over a hydropower dam on the Nile River, after US President Donald Trump suggested Cairo could destroy the dam. “Ethiopia will not cave in to aggressions of any kind,” the office of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement. “Ethiopia may be confronted with poverty but are rich with history, patriotic citizens whose commitment to defend their country’s sovereignty is unparalleled.”
October 26, 2020 by

Eskom moves to appoint advisers to structure ‘green’ transaction

South Africa’s coal-heavy power utility is moving to appoint financial advisers to assist it in structuring a potential transaction that could unlock discounted ‘green’ funding for the debt-laden State-owned entity in return for it meeting agreed decarbonisation targets. Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter reports that the utility has issued and enquiry through which it aims to secure the services of financial advisers with expertise in structuring green-finance deals and reports that several of its existing lenders, especially development finance institutions (DFIs), have expressed an appetite for participating in the arrangement.
October 22, 2020 by

University of Pretoria team come second in Brics youth energy event

A South African team took second place in the recent 2020 Brics Youth Energy Outlook event, hosted in Moscow. Brics is the acronym for the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa alignment and the Youth Energy Outlook involves teams of young researchers submitting papers on energy and the energy sectors of their countries. The recent 2020 event was the third edition of the initiative and involved 190 researchers from 42 leading universities from the five Brics countries.  It was a team from the University of Pretoria that secured second place for South Africa. The researchers involved were team leader and PhD candidate Vanessa Ndlovu, research assistant and PhD candidate Jessika Bohlmann, PhD student Alanda Venter, PhD student Jacobus Nel, and Masters student Ashley Gandy. (First place was taken by a Brazilian team.)
October 22, 2020 by

Procurement of 11.8 GW only the ‘first step’ in full elimination of load-shedding threat …

State-owned power utility Eskom, which is ramping up the maintenance of its unreliable and unpredictable coal power stations, anticipates that there will be a ‘step change’ in the performance of the fleet from April 2021, but has also warned that the risk of load-shedding will persist until at least September and will not be fully eliminated until significant new generation capacity is introduced. In fact, CEO Andre de Ruyter said during a ‘State of the System’ briefing on Thursday that far more capacity than the 11.8 GW of new non-Eskom generation earmarked for procurement by government over the coming three years would be needed to stabilise supply and create the platform for future economic growth.
October 22, 2020 by