The Republic of (South) Korea’s (ROK’s) new administration (inaugurated in May) has announced a new energy policy which re-emphasises the importance of nuclear energy for the country, World Nuclear News has reported. New President Yoon Suk-yeol had promised to reverse the nuclear phase-out policy of his predecessor, President Moon Jae-in, which had been adopted on the latter’s inauguration in 2017, as a reaction to the Fukushima Daiichi crisis in Japan in 2011. The new policy aimed to ensure that nuclear power provided at least 30% of the country’s energy mix. The target date for achieving this was 2030. This would be achieved by completing nuclear power plants (NPPs) now under construction, and safely extending the lives of existing NPPs.
The National Planning Commission (NPC) has called for the declaration of an ‘energy emergency’ to override any red tape currently preventing the construction of new electricity capacity, as well as to make it possible to build 10 000 MW of new generation and 5 000 MW of new storage capacity over the coming two years. “The most immediate priority is to ensure that new generation capacity is rapidly and urgently brought onto the grid, together with significant new storage capacity.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the publication of the Just Transition Framework will enable South Africa to “proceed apace with harnessing the benefits” of the Just Energy Transition Partnership concluded with the US, the UK, Germany, France and the European Union in late 2021. The partnership includes an offer of $8.5-billion in concessional climate finance to accelerate South Africa’s transition from coal to renewables and support workers and communities currently reliant on the coal value chain.
The Drakenstein municipality in the Western Cape – encompassing Paarl, Wellington, Mbekweni, Gouda, Saron, Hermon and Simondium – reports that it is exploring the procurement of electricity from independent power producers (IPPs) to mitigate the negative impact of ongoing load-shedding by Eskom. Executive Mayor Alderman Conrad Poole reports that, working together with the Western Cape government, Drakenstein is investigating a combination of renewable energy resources, such as solar and wind, as well as using gas instead of electricity.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have accepted Eskom’s one-year 7% wage deal in principle and will sign an agreement to this effect imminently. This comes after a several-week deadlock in wage talks at the Central Bargaining Forum, which triggered protest disruptions at various Eskom plants and plunged the country into Stage 6 load-shedding for the second time in the power utility’s history.
The National Treasury has published amendments to Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act that encourages infrastructure investments by retirement funds, while still leaving the final investment decision to fund trustees. The amendments will take effect on January 3, 2023.
Rolls-Royce SMR, a subsidiary company of the UK-based global major power and propulsion systems group Rolls-Royce, has announced its shortlist of locations to build its first factory (of three) that will produce the components for its small modular nuclear reactor (SMR). The Rolls-Royce SMR company was set up by the Rolls-Royce-led SMR consortium, the other members of which were (and now shareholders in the company are) Assystem, Atkins, BAM Nuttall, Jacobs, Laing O’Rourke, the (UK) National …
The African National Congress’s (ANC’s) national executive committee (NEC) heard wide-ranging and spirited calls for intervention in response to the Eskom energy crisis, which ranged from the declaration of a state of emergency to immediately moving Eskom from the Department of Public Enterprises to the Department of Energy. Sources who attended the NEC meeting, which began on Saturday and ended on Monday, noted that there was an acknowledgement that South Africa’s energy shortages and ongoing rolling blackouts were a crisis.
City of Johannesburg electricity utility City Power said the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has approved its application for an average electricity tariff increase of 7.47%, which is essential to cover the increased cost of bulk purchases from Eskom, which increased by 8.61%, as well as to cover an inflationary adjustment, which increased by 4.4%, to City Power’s operating cost. City Power, after an extensive public consultation process, applied to Nersa for the average tariff increase, which will come into effect from July.
South Africa’s National Treasury is seeking to hire a legal firm to advise it on how to reorganize the R396-billion debt burden held by national power utility Eskom Holdings, people familiar with the situation said. A request for proposals from the firms was issued recently, according to one of the people. It comes as the department continues with technical work it began in March on how to deal with the debt that’s left the utility reliant on state handouts to survive. Eskom doesn’t earn sufficient revenue to cover its running costs and interest payments, and the company has subjected the country to intermittent power outages since 2008 because it can’t meet demand. The people asked not to be identified as a public statement has not been made.
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