Explosion at Joburg substation could lead to another week of electricity woes

It’s been six days since a fire at a substation in Eldorado Park left large sections of Johannesburg without power. And, to make matters worse, an explosion at the same substation could lead to another seven days of work before the electricity is fully restored. The fire, which initially started at around 05:00 on Friday, caused widespread power outages and water cuts in Johannesburg. City Power had hoped to restore the electricity on Wednesday, but the explosion could have derailed that plan.
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Eskom wants OEM ‘boots on ground’ to help stabilise poor performing coal fleet

Eskom has confirmed that it intends procuring engineering and maintenance services from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the coming months to supplement its skills base at power stations that have become prone to repeated unplanned breakdowns. CEO André de Ruyter said the strategy was still being canvassed with organised labour and with government, but that he expected the first OEM “boots on the ground” within the coming three to six months.
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Karpowership showcases FSRU vessel, highlights floating gas-to-power benefits

Floating gas-to-power specialist Karpowership South Africa (KPS SA) has showcased a Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) ship, in Cape Town, before it ventures on to its final destination in Rio de Janeiro.  KPS SA plans on docking three of these vessels – one each at Richards Bay, Saldanha Bay and Coega – to generate a combined 1.2 GW of power for South Africa’s grid for a 20-year period.
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‘Low’ chance of a total blackout, says Eskom

There is a low likelihood of a total blackout, or collapse of the power system, Eskom said on Wednesday. The power utility provided a system update as Stage 4 load shedding persists.
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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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