Blame game amplified amid ongoing load-shedding

Creamer Media’s Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the finger pointing that is normal after any bout of load-shedding; the most recent blame game being amplified as a result of an ugly showdown during a Parliamentary oversight visit to Eskom’s Megawatt Park; President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response; and what the country should be doing to tackle the ongoing energy crisis.
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Commodities to stay elevated on Ukraine war, World Bank says

Food and energy price surges worsened by the Ukraine war could last through the end of 2024 due to disruptions in trade and production, the World Bank Group said Tuesday.

Increase in energy prices, which has reached the largest since the 1973 oil crisis, is expected to pass 50% in 2022 before easing in 2023 and 2024, the multilateral group said in its Commodity Markets Outlook. Prices for agriculture and metals are projected to increase almost 20% in 2022 before moderating at elevated levels in the following years.

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Eskom seeks indemnity from Karpowership in power-purchase pact

South Africa’s bid to secure 2 000 MW of so-called emergency electricity has hit an obstacle, with the State power utility asking the biggest winner of the tender to indemnify it against any adverse outcomes from corruption allegations, two people familiar with the situation said. A losing bidder, DNG Power Holdings, alleged in a lawsuit that government officials acted corruptly in awarding Turkey’s Karpowership about 60% of the tender that will see it supplying energy from three ship-mounted power plants off the South African coast. While DNG, which demanded that it replace Karpowership, lost the High Court case in January it has been allowed to appeal.
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Kipeto wind project’s biodiversity plan offsets potential bird impacts

The biodiversity action plan of the 100 MW Kipeto Wind energy project, in Kenya, includes attempts to offset potential impacts on birds through on-site mitigation measures, including the observer-led shut-down-on-demand (SDOD) of turbines. The plant also has off-site raptor conservation programmes implemented through conservation partners, which are focused primarily on anti-poisoning community awareness-raising and interventions to decrease human-wildlife conflict.
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Standard Bank signs climate change, financing of emissions information resolution

After extensive engagement with shareholder activism organisations Just Share and Aeon Investment Management, financial services firm Standard Bank has agreed to the wording of a shareholder-proposed nonbinding, advisory resolution that Standard Bank, over a three-year timeframe, provides shareholders with increasingly detailed information about its financed emissions from oil and gas. Financed emissions are the greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions that banks and investors finance through their loans and investments. The resolution has been tabled for voting ahead of the bank’s May 31 annual general meeting (AGM).
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Clean coal a ‘figment of the imagination’, says Olver

The concept of clean coal is a figment of the imagination, according to science, said   Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) Secretariat executive director Dr Crispian Olver on April 26. “There is no such thing,” he said, speaking at the PCC-JSE Financial Sector Forum on Just Transition Framework at the JSE.
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Seifsa, Eskom discuss private generation as key to solving South Africa’s power challenges

Industry organisation the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) this week held a meeting with State-owned power utility Eskom, during which greater private sector investment into electricity generation capacity was identified as a key enabler to resolving the electricity supply challenge facing the country. Eskom does not see its future role as being one where it will be the primary source of new large-scale generation capacity, as its balance sheet simply does not permit this, Seifsa notes.
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Progress being made to clear way for 4.5 GW of distributed generation, Presidency assures

Constraints to implementing a more streamlined registration process for distributed generation power plants below 100 MW have been fully scoped and are being addressed systematically under the aegis of Operation Vulindlela, the head of The Presidency’s project management office has confirmed. In an interview with Engineering News, Rudi Dicks reports that the issues are being tackled during weekly meetings at which private sector stakeholders, Eskom and responsible government departments are present, including mineral resources and energy, forestry fisheries and the environment, public enterprises and the National Treasury.
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Europe’s energy rush spurs Sasol to quicken green hydrogen plan

Europe’s scramble to find new sources of energy to reduce its reliance on Russia has given Sasol, South Africa’s biggest fuel producer, a new purpose to accelerate its green hydrogen plans. Sasol is focusing on green hydrogen — made by machines called electrolyzers that are powered by the wind and sun — in South Africa’s northwest coast. The company is doing a feasibility study that it expects to complete in two years, according to Sasol’s CEO Fleetwood Grobler.
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KZN needs R1.9bn to repair infrastructure damaged in floods

The KwaZulu-Natal government will need more than R1.9-billion to complete work to refurbish what the recent floods have destroyed. Premier Sihle Zikalala made the announcement during an update on the response to the floods on April 24.
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