While there has been “very positive engagement” in the lead up to COP26, power utility Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter stresses that the coal value chains and communities that surround its coal-fired generation “cannot be left in the lurch” as foreign governments look to support South Africa in its just energy transition. If that were to happen, De Ruyter says, “socioeconomic misery and ghost towns” will be left behind and unemployment figures will worsen.
State-owned electricity utility Eskom has outlined a R178-billion grid investment plan for the coming ten years, which is premised on a dramatic acceleration of expansionary capital expenditure. The Transmission Development Plan (TDP) for the period 2022 to 2031 is largely geared towards expanding the network to enable the integration of 30 GW of new, mostly renewable, generation capacity.
A major structural component for China’s ACP100 demonstration small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) has been installed at the Changjiang nuclear power plant (NPP), on the Chinese island province of Hainan, “World Nuclear News” has reported. The component is a steel containment vessel bottom head, which is shaped like a giant bowl and forms, as its name says, the bottom element of the reactor containment vessel. The bottom head was installed on the SMR NPP’s concrete foundation plate. The internal components of a reactor vessel are supported by the bottom head or by the containment vessel’s cylindrical side wall. The side wall is itself also mounted on the bottom head. The vessel is completed by a top head, shaped pretty much like an inverted bowl, and usually removable (to facilitate refuelling).
Industry organisation the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) urges key stakeholders, including governments, economies and communities, to put policies in place that will raise ambitions and remove barriers to the massive scale up in investments in wind power to help reach global net-zero climate targets. As a member and participant in the Global Wind Energy Council’s (GWEC’s) COP26 Working Group, and working in collaboration with its global counterparts, SAWEA joins the GWEC in making this call ahead of COP26 taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, from October 31 to November 12.
Power utility Eskom has announced that, owing to a shortage of generation capacity, Stage 2 load-shedding will be implemented from 09:00 on October 26 to 05:00 on October 30. “While Eskom teams have successfully returned a unit each at the Kusile, Matimba and Arnot power stations during the early hours of this morning, further delays in returning other units to service have exacerbated the capacity constraints, hampering the ability to replenish the emergency generation reserves.
State-owned electricity utility Eskom says its reliability maintenance recovery (RMR) interventions have not yet succeeded in stabilising the performance of its unpredictable coal fleet and that more than year of ongoing maintenance is needed to address the poor performance of its generation assets. When Eskom announced the RMR in early 2020, it indicated that it expected that the intervention would help ease, albeit not eliminated, the risk of load-shedding by about October this year.
Demand for sustainability-linked loans is surging and banks are competing to offer this new form of finance in South Africa, which is driving legal firms like Webber Wentzel to innovate in the loan terms and agreements that they are drafting for clients, say Webber Wentzel partners Khurshid Fazel and Karen Couzyn. A sustainability-linked loan or a sustainability-linked debt security, collectively referred to as SLL, is different from a green bond.
Electricity utilities Eskom and City Power have agreed on efforts to protect the national grid, while also reducing the impact of load-shedding on Johannesburg residents and businesses.
At the weekend, City Power had initially said it would not implement load-shedding, as it had secured additional power supply from private generator, the Kelvin power station.
Coal miners Exxaro and Seriti Resources are joining forces with State-owned power utility Eskom to jointly develop renewable energy projects.
The landmark memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the parties on October 25 spells out the companies’ development plan to lower their carbon footprints.
Over a billion people on the African continent either have no access or only limited access to energy, while South Africa faces electricity supply constraints. Energy management and automation company Schneider Electric, says it has always been in the business of developing energy efficient products.
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