South Africa’s State-owned power utility has implemented power cuts on 100 days in 2022, with more to come. Eskom Holdings ramped up outages to so-called Stage 4 load-shedding, where it removes 4 000 MW from the grid, on Tuesday after three generation units at its Kendal coal-fired station about 100 km east of Johannesburg tripped. The utility expects to reduce this to 2 000 MWfrom Thursday until the end of the week. That will bring the total days of outages in the third quarter to 40, Bloomberg calculations show.
State-owned power utility Eskom says bulk electricity supply to Jagersfontein, in the Free State, was restored at 04:25 on September 14. Eskom delivers electricity in bulk to Centlec, which then distributes it to Jagersfontein and Charlesville. A tailings dam burst on September 11, damaging homes and infrastructure in the area.
Zimbabwe’s State-owned electricity distributor intensified power cuts across the country because of a shortage of supply. Outages will be intensified through September 16 because of “depressed generation on the grid,” the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Co. said in a statement on Wednesday.
Aim-quoted integrated vanadium producer and energy storage solutions provider Bushveld Minerals on September 13 reported significant improvements in revenue, earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) and operating profit for the six months ended June 30. Bushveld FD Tanya Chikanza noted that revenue had increased by 62% year-on-year to $76.2-million for the period under review. This increase was one of the key factors in improving adjusted Ebitda, which swung from a loss of $15.6-million in the 2021 interim period – an improvement of $26.4-million year-on-year.
Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has initiated public consultations on the exclusion of solar photovoltaic (PV) installations from the need to secure an environmental authorisation when located in areas of medium or low environmental sensitivity. The Minister has given the public 30 days to comment on the proposed exclusion, which is provided for in Section 24(2)(e) of the National Environmental Management Act.
Several organised business formations have outlined six recommendations in a joint position statement on carbon tax, which they argue will improve the carbon tax proposals in the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill and “avert unintended consequences”. Released by the Energy Council of South Africa, Minerals Council South Africa, Business Leadership South Africa, Business Unity South Africa, the South African Petroleum Industry Association and the Energy Intensive Users Group, the joint statement stresses that organised business is supportive of carbon pricing, including the carbon tax, to help decarbonise the economy and facilitate a just transition.
Eskom had to jump to Stage 4 load-shedding on Tuesday morning after a coal conveyor belt broke at Kendal, leading to cascading problems and the failure of three units at the power station. “In the early hours of this morning a conveyor belt feeding coal into Kendal Power Station failed. To conserve coal, the power output of the generators was reduced, but this required fuel oil to be used to sustain the boiler combustion,” Eskom said in a statement.
South African ministers will meet in the coming days to discuss an investment plan for billions of dollars pledged by rich nations for a transition to green energy, aiming to complete it before November’s COP27 climate summit, the environment minister said. At talks in Glasgow last year, the European Union, Britain, France and Germany promised $8.5 billion to help the country kick start a shift from carbon-intensive coal to cleaner energy.
Financial services provider Absa acted as joint mandated lead arranger and lender for South Africa’s first utility-scale renewable energy captive power project, which will be built in the North West at an estimated cost of about R4.1-billion. The project – comprising of two projects of 100 MW each – is being developed by SOLA Group of South Africa and will supply power to Tronox Holdings’ South African operations, Tronox SA, under a long-term power purchase agreement.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has published an erratum to a consultation paper published for public comment on August 25 in relation to it providing concurrence to a Ministerial determination for the procurement of 3 000 MW of gas-fired electricity. The original notice and consultation paper said that the 3 000 MW was based on an allocation for gas/diesel generation outlined in Table 5 of the Integrated Resource Plan of 2019 (IRP2019).
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