Ramaphosa lends his weight to plans for raising concessional funding for ‘just transition’

President Cyril Ramaphosa has doubled down on his argument that South Africa needs to act with “urgency and ambition” in transitioning to a low-carbon economy, but stressed that such increased ambition could not be achieved without financial support from developed economies. In his latest weekly newsletter, the President backs moves to raise grants and loans, at concessional rates, from the international community to support the country’s and Eskom’s just transition.
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Offshore wind offers decarbonisation solution for South Africa

A number of energy experts, academics and researchers view offshore wind as the answer to help South Africa decrease its carbon emissions by over 40% by 2025. “The wind market in South Africa is currently focussed on onshore wind, because we have the land space available and it is cost competitive, which means almost all of our members are developing onshore wind.
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Eskom denies Joburg ANC claim that city will take over power supply

Eskom has refuted a statement issued by the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) Greater Johannesburg Region branch over an apparent power-purchase agreement between the city and the state-owned power utility. In Friday’s statement, the ANC said Mayor Mpho Moerane had signed an agreement that will allow the city to take over power supply to areas such as Soweto, Orange Farm and Ivory Park.
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Wind industry to approach DMRE with pitch for unlocking domestic value-chains from $8bn roll-out

The domestic wind industry plans to approach the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) with a series of recommendations for boosting local content and direct South African involvement in the deployment of 4 300 MW of new wind capacity over the coming three years. The proposals focus primarily on embedding greater predictability and flexibility into the procurement rounds, which resumed this year following a seven-year disruption – a pause that resulted in some aspects of the domestic supply-chain, built between 2011 and 2014, being lost.
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Alarming chunk of Eskom capacity is down as load-shedding hits again

Load-shedding is back, and with a large chunk of Eskom’s capacity down, the country’s power supply is under a severe strain. On Thursday, after 77 days without load-shedding, Eskom announced that it would resume stage 2, as breakdowns amounted to 14 982 MW, while planned maintenance is 5 334 MW of capacity. Eskom earlier said it expects some of the generating units should return to service in the next few days. Load-shedding will restart at 21:00 on Friday night until 05:00 on Saturday morning.
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Hybrid energy systems key for country’s energy mix, experts posit

As South Africa continues on its journey to a greener economy, energy experts who gathered at this year’s Windaba conference, in Cape Town, predict that the country’s future energy mix is likely to include dispatchable power, in the form of hybrid systems. This follows the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s (DMRE’s) launch of its technology agnostic Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) last year, resulting in the renewable energy sector stepping in to develop hybrid energy systems, characterised by a mix of wind, solar photovoltaic (PV), battery energy storage systems (BESS) and dispatchable generation (DG).
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De Ruyter reiterates Eskom’s need to adapt to the changing energy landscape

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter says there are significant efficiency gains to be made by embracing digitalisation at the State-owned power utility.

Speaking during the second day of the Joburg Indaba on October 7, he unpacked the changing energy provider landscape in South Africa.

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Pump systems optimised through energy-saving assessments

With international studies showing that pump systems account for more than 20% of global electrical energy demand, the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA) has worked with more than 450 companies during the past decade, under its flagship Industrial Energy Efficiency Project. One of the project’s offerings, which has been taken up by large energy users, is pump system optimisation (PSO). Pumps comprise a large and integral part of almost every subsector of industry in South Africa and, therefore, provide great opportunity for energy savings, according to the NCPC-SA.
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Hydro project set to boost green credentials of giant DRC copper complex

While Kamoa Copper, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is on track to become the second-largest copper mining complex globally, and the biggest in Africa, it is also poised to be among the greenest of copper mines. This is largely on the back of the project being completely powered by hydroelectricity, and the intention to implement a switchover to electric mining vehicles, Kamoa Copper CEO Mark Farren tells Engineering News & Mining Weekly.
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Eskom to implement power cuts to replenish reserves

South Africa’s struggling state power utility Eskom said it would implement scheduled power cuts from Thursday evening to replenish emergency generation reserves. The “stage 2” power cuts, which requires up to 2,000 megawatts of capacity to be shed from the national grid, will be implemented from 9 p.m. local time on Thursday until 5 a.m. on Friday, and again from Friday at 9 p.m. until Saturday at 5 a.m.
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