Load-shedding should ease over the coming days and the nation’s electricity supply will continue to improve over the medium term as new investments bolster generation, according to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan. “We will have load-shedding for a while in South Africa,” Gordhan said on Thursday in an interview on Bloomberg TV. But “not of the order that we’ve seen in the recent past,” he said.
Industry organisation the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) says governments need to take dramatic action to scale up wind and renewable energy in this decade, and to address energy security and climate crises ahead of the international climate meeting the Conference of the Parties 27 (COP27). If the world is to get on track for 1.5 °C-compliant pathway (above preindustrial levels) to net zero, yearly global wind energy installations must quadruple to about 390 GW/y by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency and, by 2050, wind energy must generate more than one-third of global electricity, up from 6% today.
With load-shedding escalating as South Africa enters the summer crop planting season, the current energy crisis may have implications for food security into the coming year unless farmers can put measures in place to mitigate against the effects of load-shedding, says Agri SA. The industry body has requested an urgent engagement with Eskom CEO André de Ruyter on the outlook for load-shedding in the coming weeks.
Business organisation Business Unity South Africa (Busa) is urging government to urgently implement identified priority interventions, as the economic damage of the ongoing load-shedding is “severe and there must be an immediate intervention to deal with the crisis to at least manage load-shedding better”. Small and medium-sized businesses, in particular, are experiencing severe difficulties and many may not be able to recover from this, the organisation warns.
The affordability of the 32% tariff hike being sought by Eskom for implementation on April 1 next year came under intense scrutiny on the last day of National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) public hearings. The regulator, which adjudicated the first year of the three-year fifth multiyear price determination (MYPD5) in January, when it approved a 9.61% increase for the 2023 financial year against an Eskom request for 20.5%, expects to decide for the 2024 and 2025 financial years by November 7.
The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) says Eskom’s new Standard Offer Programme may be a reinvigoration of government’s Additional Megawatt Programme that was launched in June last year. The original programme was also intended to buy additional energy from independent power producers (IPPs).
The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has sent a delegation to Spain to visit wind energy company Nordex’s wind turbine manufacturing facilities, as South Africa’s accelerated energy transition and its push for sector industrialisation requires increased local manufacturing, with a projected localisation target of well over 55% for government procurement by the end of the decade. To achieve this, government’s support through policy, smooth procurement and investment will be the key enabler. The exploratory trip will allow for first-hand discussions with the original equipment manufacturer, the IDC says.
The Green Energy Africa Summit (GEAS) has announced ten green technology start-up companies as finalists that will have the opportunity to present to potential investors at a pitching event in October. In preparation, the finalists will be invited to a focused training session to get them pitch perfect, the GEAS adds.
Eskom told the regulator on Tuesday that its immediate focus was on returning 14 coal units to service over the coming four days, in an effort to recover 8 012 MW of coal generation so as to ease load-shedding, which was being implemented at Stage 5. Although the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) hearings are concerned primarily with the State-owned utility’s request for a 32% tariff hike, regulatory members had requested an update on load-shedding and its implications for the utility’s costs during the first day of hearings on Monday.
Business organisation the Small Business Institute (SBI) calls on government to accelerate the implementation of measures to stabilise power utility Eskom, as businesses, and especially small businesses that are supposed to create 90% of jobs by 2030, are suffering from rolling blackouts. “Load-shedding is undermining everything we are trying to achieve as a country – from growth to jobs and poverty reduction. The investment drive by the president is being hobbled by uncertainty arising from unreliable power supply,” says SBI CEO John Dludlu.
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