Load-shedding downgraded to Stage 3 on Wednesday night

Load-shedding will be reduced from Stage 4 to Stage 3 at 22:00, and remain in force until Friday, Eskom announced on Wednesday. Six generation units have been returned online over the past 24 hours, with three more units set to return on Thursday.
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DMRE says it has no knowledge of Eskom’s standard offer to secure power from private generators

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) says it is unaware of Eskom’s ‘standard offer’ instrument, through which the utility claims it could potentially secure an immediate 500 MW from private generators with surplus electricity. Eskom CEO André de Ruyter listed the standard offer among several short-term interventions that should be enabled immediately to ease pressure on the country’s load-shedding prone grid.
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Rolls-Royce optimistic that its SMR design will be approved quickly

Rolls-Royce SMR, the UK-based global power and propulsion system manufacturing group Rolls-Royce’s small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) subsidiary, hopes that it will receive UK regulatory approval for its design in about two years, and be generating power before the end of this decade. So Rolls-Royce SMR chairperson Paul Stein has told the Reuters news agency. The regulatory approval process for the SMR began last month. “[It] will likely complete in the middle of 2024,” he said, “we are trying to work with the UK Government, and others to get going now placing orders, so that we can get power on grid by 2029.”
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Siemens Gamesa CEO says wind turbine material price peak is not over

Siemens Gamesa is discussing raising prices for its wind turbines by more than a high single-digit percentage in some cases as it grapples with stubbornly lofty raw materials prices, CE Jochen Eickholt said on Wednesday. “For specific materials … steel, copper, others, we continue to observe further non-decreasing prices so the price peak we kind of reached is kind of still in existence,” Eickholt told analysts on a conference call after posting a quarterly loss. Read full story
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Saldanha Bay ideal for green hydrogen production

The Saldanha Bay region has “excellent” solar and wind resources that have the potential for large renewable energy electricity at competitive costs, making it an ideal location to produce green hydrogen – hydrogen made using renewable energy as a source of electricity – Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) senior research engineer Thomas Roos highlighted during a recent event. In a keynote address at the second Energy Transition webinar, on April 12, hosted by the Saldanha Bay Innovation Campus (SB-IC), he said that, although electricity was a contested space in South Africa, the potential for green hydrogen production “far exceeds” local demand.
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GreenCape selects ten finalists for its GreenPitch challenge

Climate change adaptation and green economy nonprofit GreenCape has selected ten finalists for the 2022 GreenPitch Challenge. The ten green economy innovators will prepare to pitch their innovations to a panel of judges on May 5, at an event hosted by GreenCape in partnership with the City of Cape Town’s Invest Cape Town and The Business Hub.
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Nedbank extends R200m green loan for Vukile solar projects

JSE-listed real estate investment trust Vukile Property Fund has concluded a five-year, R200-million use-of-proceeds green loan with financial services firm Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking, which will fund 19 solar energy projects and energy-efficiency initiatives across South Africa. The loan will fund seven recently installed solar energy projects of R60-million.
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Eskom warns of 101 days of load-shedding this winter in ‘extreme’ case

There can be as many as 101 days of load-shedding this winter, in the “extreme case”, according to an Eskom official. Eskom on Tuesday provided an update on the state of the power system, this after load-shedding escalated to Stage 4 in the morning due to failing generating units.
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De Ruyter in ‘call to arms’ appeal for cutting of red tape binds on new and existing capacity

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter has appealed for an immediate easing of regulatory impediments to the introduction of both immediately available capacity of about 500 MW and the accelerated procurement, or introduction, of the generation capacity required to ease the now constant risk of load-shedding. De Ruyter made this “call to arms” after the utility declared Stage 4 load-shedding at short notice on Tuesday morning and indicated that the rotational cuts would continue until at least Thursday night, owing to high levels of unplanned breakdowns of more than 15 600 MW.
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RMB CEO calls for localisation rules to be waived to catalyse transition to renewables

Financial services firm RMB CEO James Formby says South Africa urgently needs a “megawatts first” policy and that localisation rules, which make renewable energy more expensive, should be waived. Local material content rules increase the cost of wind and solar energy production. Import tariffs, such as those on imported steel, are also making renewable energy more expensive.
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