Creamer Media’s Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about load-shedding continuing to present a danger, how the leadership of Eskom is handling the intense pressure it is facing, whether the policy and regulatory environment is supportive of a speedy resolution to the current crisis and the renewed focus on the 4 000 MW to 6 000 MW supply gap.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has confirmed that the collapse of a distribution-line tower providing power to the coal conveyor system at the Lethabo power station, in the Free State, was a “deliberate act of sabotage”. The sabotage occurred at about 18:00 on Wednesday November 17 and was implemented in such a way as to ensure that the tower collapsed on to a second distribution line, providing double redundancy to the conveyor system.
Aligned to Liberty Two Degrees (L2D) Good Spaces building block, which aims to minimise the impact on the natural environment while creating spaces that are agile, adaptable and aligned to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as well as L2D’s 2030 Net Zero carbon target, L2D’s Eastgate Shopping Centre has introduced three solar trees to the centre’s rooftop Piazza.
The South African Renewable Energy Masterplan (SAREM) is expected to be finalised for adoption before the end of March, following which it will become the country’s implementation plan for the industrialisation of the renewables value chain. Work is still under way to achieve consensus between labour, business, civil society and government on what the priority actions should be and a complete first draft of the document should be released early next year.
Tutuka power station GM Sello Mametja is hopeful Eskom will be able to improve the energy availability factor (EAF) of the power station, near Standerton, Mpumalanga, above 70% by June next year. Mametja took over as GM of the power station nine months ago and told media during a site tour on November 18 that Tutuka was the worst-performing of Eskom’s power stations, with an EAF of only 34%.
French multinational utility company Engie has completed the acquisition of Abengoa’s indirect stake in Xina Solar One. Following completion of the transaction, Engie now holds a 40% equity stake in the Xina Solar One 100 MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, as well as a 46% stake in the Xina Operations & Maintenance Company.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter reports that overt and covert security is being beefed up in and around the utility’s power stations following suspicious incidents at Matimba and Lethabo on November 17 that are suspected of not being “entirely coincidental”. In a briefing on the state of the system, which descended into load-shedding again on Wednesday, De Ruyter emphasised that he was typically wary off attributing to “malice what could be explained by incompetence”.
South Africa’s energy department has said it will start preparing for the end of coal-for-power use in the country but cautioned that a retreat from the dirtiest fossil fuel must take account of the impact on the economy and the people who depend on it for a living. In a presentation to a small group of business, government and research representatives on November 15, the department said it plans to set up a Just Energy Transition unit to help deliver an outcome “which delivers social justice,” according to a copy of it seen by Bloomberg. While the department declined to immediately comment on the presentation, four people with knowledge of it confirmed its veracity.
Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy says that, although COP26 was not the ‘finance COP’ hoped for ahead of the Glasgow meeting, it nevertheless did yield “a good, solid work programme” for defining the post-2025 finance goal and for ensuring that the prevailing $100-billion climate finance commitment is in fact implemented. Ahead of the gathering, South Africa prioritised the securing of an ambitious finance goal and had even suggested that the figure pledged by developed countries to developing countries be progressively increased to $750-billion by 2030.
South Africa’s energy regulator and energy minister have been sued by environmental activists over national plans to allow the construction of new coal-fired power plants. Plans for the construction of 1 500 megawatts of coal-fired generation capacity are included in the 2019 Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity and a ministerial determination passed on September 25 last year.
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