Four independent power producers have been named as successful bidders for the lease of grid-ready Mpumalanga land, which is being made available by Eskom as part of efforts to accelerate the development of wind, solar and storage projects in the province – investments that should, in time, help lower the risk of loadshedding and provide new employment and business opportunities in the region as coal plants are decommissioned. The entities identified as having secured the 25- to 30-year property leases for parcels covering a total of 6 184 ha of land near the Majuba and Tutuka coal stations are HDF Energy South Africa, Red Rocket, Sola Group and Mainstream Renewable Power Developments South Africa.
Electricity equipment multinational Hitachi Energy has signed a long-term service agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) Société Nationale d’Electricité (SNEL) to secure power supply in the country’s most important power transmission asset – the Inga-Kolwezi high-voltage direct current (HVDC) link. The link supplies up to 1 000 MW of emission-free electricity from the Inga Falls hydropower plant in the far west of the country to the Kolwezi mining region in the south. With a length of 1 700 km, it is the longest HVDC link in Africa.
Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer talks about the public hearings that were due to be held this week by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), but which had to be rescheduled owing to a poor response; what Nersa will do next; and the overall trend of waning interest in Nersa hearings.
Road transport is the most prioritised area to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to leading e-commerce and manufacturing companies in Europe. A new report carried out by market research company Ipsos and vehicle manufacturer Volvo Trucks shows that companies are willing to pay more for transport suppliers with lower CO2 emissions. On behalf of Volvo Trucks Ipsos interviewed 100 large e-commerce and manufacturing companies in eight European countries about their demand for fossil fuel free transports in future procurements. The countries included in the survey were the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.
The City of Cape Town says its electricity customers have been protected from more than 1 100 hours of the 1 900 hours of loadshedding implemented by State-owned Eskom between February and September this year. “Where possible, the city has been able to protect its customers from up to two stages of loadshedding primarily through the management of the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme,” says City of Cape Town energy MMC Beverley van Reenen.
The Department of Minerals Resources and Energy (DMRE) has made “significant progress” in the process of promulgating the Electricity Regulation Amendment (ERA) Bill, DMRE deputy director-general for mining, minerals and energy policy Ntokozo Ngcwabe has told the Windaba 2022 conference in Cape Town. Approval by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, and submission to the full Cabinet, should both happen next month. Subsequently, it would be tabled in Parliament. She explained that, at that point, Parliament’s own processes, procedures and timescales took over and the DMRE no longer had any control over the progress of the Bill. The department would follow and monitor the parliamentary process, to be ready to respond to any queries or comments that might be generated by the parliamentary process.
Manufacturing is responsible for only one-third of jobs within the wind energy sector, says Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Africa area director Marcel Cabral. Speaking at Windaba 2022 in Cape Town on Thursday on a panel around localisation in the wind sector, Cabral noted that the other two-thirds revolved around the development, construction, running and maintenance of wind farms, and “that South Africa had all the resources for that”.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has announced new dates for public hearings regarding its concurrence with three Ministerial determinations opening the way for the procurement of 18 771 MW of new electricity capacity, having initially cancelled hearings scheduled for this week, owing to a lack of response. In a notice issued on October 13, Nersa announced that the time for public comment regarding its concurrence with the determinations had been extended and invited stakeholders to attend rescheduled virtual hearings on October 20 and 21, between 13:00 and 17:00 on both days.
Clean energy is set to be a major contributor to a global and sustainable energy system and wind energy is becoming one of the lowest-cost sources of clean energy, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said during the eleventh Windaba Conference, in Cape Town, on October 12. He noted that the conference was being held at a time when South Africa was experiencing frequent loadshedding owing to challenges with the performance of its existing coal-fired power generation plants.
Stage 2 loadshedding will continue to be implemented on Wednesday and Thursday at 16:00 to 00:00 and be reduced to Stage 1 on Friday, from 16:00 until 00:00, Eskom announced on Wednesday. Eskom said this was due to the persistent shortage of generation capacity.
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