Two further suspicious incidents at Eskom power stations on Thursday and Friday, just a day after Eskom confirmed two acts of sabotage at its Tutuka Power Station, have increased fears that an orchestrated sabotage campaign is under way to prevent a halt to load-shedding. In the early hours of Friday, Eskom officials at Hendrina Power Station were unable to start up unit five and upon inspection found that during the night copper bars on the unit’s generator had been removed, and reactor earth bars, had also been removed.
Eskom says a shortage of generation capacity has persisted, and Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 17:00 to 22:00 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. “As previously communicated, due to the continued shortage of generation capacity Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 17:00 until 22:00 [on Friday]. Load shedding will be repeated at the same time on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Eskom will continue to closely monitor the system, adjust and communicate any changes as may be necessary,” it said in a statement on Friday morning.
Aim- and AltX-listed energy developer Kibo Energy has appointed Cobus van der Merwe group CFO and Pieter Krügel CEO of Kibo subsidiary Mast Energy Developments, effective June 1.
Van der Merwe brings to the position more than a decade of experience in managerial and executive roles in the investment management and energy, utilities and resources sectors.
A group of the world’s richest nations offered South Africa debt guarantees as part of a proposed $8.5-billion deal designed to cut the nation’s reliance on coal for power generation, people familiar with the talks said, potentially resolving one sticking point in the negotiations. The guarantees would enable South Africa or companies such as state power utility Eskom Holdings to borrow money needed to close down coal-fired power plants and enable the generation of renewable energy, one of the people said. The people asked not to be identified as the talks aren’t public.
Swedish energy storage specialist Polarium has opened a lithium-ion battery assembly plant in Montague Park, Cape Town. The facility is the group’s third in the world, with the other two plants in Mexico and Vietnam.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has described as “constructive” a proposal by the opposition Democratic Alliance for a meeting to discuss short-term solutions to the country’s ongoing load-shedding crisis. In his Budget Vote address, Mantashe outlined the initiatives his department was taking to ensure that new capacity was added and to close what Eskom estimates to be a 4 000 MW to 6 000 MW immediate shortfall.
Power utility Eskom on May 19 confirmed an incident in which a cable was severed at the Tutuka power station this week while the power station was finalising preparations to return Unit 5 to service. “The damage to the cable had the effect of delaying the unit’s return to service by three days, as it took some time to locate the fault.
The “either-or” narrative pitting accelerated infrastructure delivery against localisation has been challenged by Dr Bernie Fanaroff, who played a central role in the development of the Steel Master Plan, which identifies localisation as one of several instruments to be used to revive the embattled sector. Speaking at a conference on the master plan hosted by the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa, Fanaroff questioned the view emerging in some parts of government, business and academia that “localisation will add unnecessary costs, delays and quality issues” to the delivery of urgently needed infrastructure.
Johannesburg could turn around the lossmaking performance of City Power, end load-shedding and improve the green credentials of its manufacturing industry by purchasing 80% of its wholesale electricity from large-scale, citizen-owned solar and wind plants at a cost below that purchased from Eskom currently. This is the view of Clyde Mallinson, an energy specialist who has conducted extensive modelling on a future domestic electricity supply industry based exclusively on solar, wind and storage.
As the country once again contends with continued load-shedding, the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has reaffirmed the sector’s role in contributing to energy security. This is despite the recent announcement of delays to two renewable energy procurement rounds meant to unlock and deliver new generation capacity, SAWEA says.
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