Coal demand from State-owned power utility Eskom is expected to normalise, following low demand over the past few months, diversified miner South32 COO Mike Fraser said during a media call to discuss its interim results, on February 18. He said the maintenance work being undertaken by should result in an increase in pull demand for coal, which should return to normal levels in the future.
Fast-moving consumer goods company the Shoprite Group has expanded its solar photovoltaic (PV) programme, with 19 of its sites in South Africa and Namibia now boasting rooftop PV installations.
There are now 18 Shoprite Group stores throughout South Africa and Namibia that use solar power, including Checkers stores in Plettenberg Bay Mall, Woodlands, Parys, Sitari, Gordons Bay, Constantia, Hermanus and Whale Coast Mall.
The African Development Bank’s (AfDB’s) Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (Sefa) is providing a $965 000 grant to Morocco’s Société d’Ingénierie Energétique (SIE), to support its transition into the first “super energy service company (Esco)” initiative in Africa.
Sefa is an AfDB-managed special fund, providing finance for renewable energy projects.
On February 12, Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel published a Gazette notice granting the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) permission to deviate from the relevant Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment code of good practice for the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP). Through the RMIPPPP, government is aiming to procure 2 000 MW of ‘emergency’ power for operation by June 2022. The evaluation of the 28 bids received ahead of the submission deadline, which was extended to December 22 from an initial deadline of November 24, is under way and is expected to be completed this month.
Eskom is considering handing over its R840 million white elephant of a block of flats near Witbank to local community members – after cost overruns described by its CEO André de Ruyter as “deplorable”. The Wilge Residential Development Project was meant to house contractors and artisans working at Kusile power station in 336 flats.
Democratic Republic of Congo’s ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, Jean Le’on Ngandu Ilunga has hinted that construction on the Inga 3 hydro-power project could start by the end of the year. “We believe in the coming month we will see concrete steps towards implementation. Towards the end of this year, some concrete steps will be seen on the ground,” he said in response to a question by News24 during an online seminar organised by the Institute for Security Studies.
The Energy Intensive Users Group of Southern Africa (EIUG) has noted “with disappointment” the Eskom price increase announced on February 16.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has agreed to the State-owned power utility increasing its tariff by 15.6% for the 2021/22 financial year.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) and Eskom have reached an agreement to add R10-billion to Eskom’s allowable revenue in 2021/22, to be recovered through the tariff, pending the outcome of an appeal of a 2020 High Court ruling directing the regulator to immediately add back R23-billion of a larger R69-billion equity injection illegally deducted from the utility’s allowable revenue. The settlement was confirmed in a February 15 court order made by Justice Joseph Raulinga, who, on January 29, heard Eskom’s application to have the High Court order executed pending Nersa’s appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
State-owned power utility Eskom is preparing a pioneering request for proposals (RFP) for the repowering and repurposing of the Komati power station, in Mpumalanga, which is among the first four coal plants scheduled for decommissioning in the coming few years. Eskom just energy transition office head Mandy Rambharos reported on Tuesday that the RFP could be released within the coming two months, once all outstanding governance matters had been settled both internally as well as with government.
A photograph in the entrance hall at Komati Power Station shows the plant in better times, its nine generating units belching steam and smoke into the night sky. Those days are never coming back: Komati’s sole remaining working unit is facing closure within two years under plans by state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC to shut about a quarter of its coal-fired capacity by 2030. Next door at the Goedehoop mine, arrays of solar panels line the main access road, a sign of what may be to come for South Africa’s coal belt.
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