The first application for tariff relief provided for under the Negotiated Pricing Agreement (NPA) frameworks published late last year by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has been submitted to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for authorisation. Nersa tells Engineering News that it will follow its normal approval process and will make a determination within a period of 120 days if all the information has been submitted.
South African electricity company Eskom said on Friday it was suspending rolling power cuts implemented this week as demand had dropped ahead of the weekend. Eskom, which supplies about 95 percent of the country’s electricity mainly through coal, however urged consumers to continue using the resource sparingly as the system remained vulnerable and unstable.
Italy’s biggest utility Enel has signed a deal with the Qatar Investment Authority to develop renewable energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, the two groups said. Under the deal, the Qatar sovereign wealth fund will, as a first step, buy half of Enel’s stake in 800 MW of its existing renewable capacity in South Africa and Zambia.
Pan-African renewable power producer company BioTherm Energy, backed by emerging market investor Actis, has announced the official start of operations at its Excelsior Wind Energy Facility at the end of 2020. This marks the completion of its third Independent Power Producer (IPP) project in South Africa during the year as part of the fourth round of the government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, boasting a combined generating capacity of 165 MW.
Integrated green technology company VanadiumCorp Resource has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a trilateral partnership with Conoship International Projects from the Netherlands and Vega Reederei and Partners from Germany. Key engineering work is planned to commercially develop next-generation vanadium redox flow-battery (RFB) technology and high-energy-density electrolyte technologies for marine propulsion applications.
State-owned power utility Eskom will be implementing Stage 2 load-shedding between 22:00 and 05:00 on January 6 and 7. The load-shedding is necessary to recover and preserve the emergency generation reserves that have been used to support the system during the week following the earlier-than-planned shutdown of Koeberg power station’s Unit 1 and other units whose return to service has been delayed, the utility notes.
Researchers from the Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology (Fitztitute) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), HawkWatch International and the University of Amsterdam have developed a new tool that offers developers more accurate guidance on where to safely build wind farms to prevent birds of prey being struck by wind turbines. UCT points out in a statement that the rapid uptake of wind energy globally offers hope of a transition toward sustainable renewable energy, but also presents a real threat to soaring birds of prey, particularly the Verreaux’s Eagle.
The World Bank expects the South African economy to recover by 3.3% in 2021 and return to a “near potential pace” of 1.7% in 2022 after contracting by an estimated 7.8% during Covid-afflicted 2020. However, it warns in its flagship Global Economic Prospects report, published on Tuesday, that the pandemic has precipitated a dramatic fall in per capita income, which has pushed tens of million more people in South Africa and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa into extreme poverty.
Africa-focused hydropower developer Tembo Power Holdings (TPH), formerly Tembo Power Limited, has appointed Jacques Barouhiel to lead its financial structuring business as MD.
TPH is an independent power producer (IPP) with a focus on small hydropower in sub-Saharan Africa. It holds rights over 13 projects across Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Cameroon, for a total installed capacity of about 300 MW.
Power plant company Scatec has launched its new logo and profile, with this transformation following the company’s broadened growth strategy and the name change to Scatec from Scatec Solar. “2020 was a monumental year for Scatec. During the crisis, we made the greatest expansion since our establishment, by broadening our strategy and acquiring SN Power. I am, therefore, pleased to start the new year by unveiling a profile and logo supporting our ambition to become a global large-scale player in solar, hydro, wind and storage solutions, and an integrator of high-value infrastructure solutions,” says CEO Raymond Carlsen.
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