State-owned utility Eskom announces that multilateral development bank the World Bank, a key strategic creditor of the entity, has granted its consent for the proposed legal separation of the Transmission division from Eskom Holdings to the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA). “The World Bank’s consent marks a significant milestone in advancing our turnaround plan and contributing towards a sustainable resolution of the country’s energy crisis. It is subject to certain conditions, example, confirmation that all the necessary suspensive conditions required to operationalise NTCSA have been met.
Having outlined an improving power system prognosis for the working week on Sunday, following the shock implementation of Stage 6 on Friday November 24, Eskom has since reported that the outlook has deteriorated and has declared Stage 4 until 5:00 on Saturday. A day earlier, a faster de-escalation in the intensity of rotational cuts was forecast, with Eskom indicating that, having reduced loadshedding to Stage 4 from 12:00 on Sunday, Stage 3 cuts would be implemented during the day until Friday, while being ramped up to Stage 4 during the late afternoons to navigate the evening peak and replenish emergency reserves overnight.
South Africans are already painfully aware that 2023 has been a devastating year for power disruptions, with the latest bout of Stage 6 loadshedding having provided yet another traumatic reminder of just how far away South Africa is currently from fully addressing its supply deficit. A pain that was reportedly felt even more intensely by the residents of Johannesburg, who were subjected to City Power’s new schedule, which some have concluded was implemented at a Stage 8 intensity. A claim that City Power has denied.
The fourth International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Nuclear Energy Management (NEM) school for Africa was held in Cape Town, from November 13 to November 24, the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) has highlighted. Necsa hosted the school, on behalf of South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy. “Skills development is one of our key strategic priorities as an organisation, [so] we are therefore proud to be part of NEM school,” affirmed Necsa Group CEO Loyiso …
The upcoming 2023 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, more commonly referred to as COP28, will be an important opportunity for South Africa to develop global goodwill in support of the country’s energy transition and translate it into flows of investment to fund the infrastructure needed to transition South Africa’s economy, private sector lobby group Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busisiwe Mavuso has said. This year’s event will be the twenty-eighth UN Climate Change Conference and is scheduled to be held from November 30 to December 12 at the Expo City in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
Eskom is forecasting a de-escalation in the intensity of rotational power cuts for the coming week following the traumatic return of Stage 6 on Friday November 24 and complaints in certain distribution areas, notably Johannesburg, that the duration and frequency of the latest cuts exceeded those experienced during previous Stage 6 episodes. The utility announced that loadshedding would be reduced to Stage 4 from 12:00 on Sunday November 26 until 5:00 on Monday November 27, when Stage 3 cuts would be implemented.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa attributed the “unwelcome” ramp up in the intensity of loadshedding to Stage 6 to a need for Eskom to rebuild its emergency reserves that had been depleted by the failure of large coal units during the week and a 1 500 MW spike in demand, which was attributed to the heat-wave conditions affecting parts of the country. Eskom implemented Stage 6 loadshedding at midday on November 24, a period that coincided with the yearly Black Friday retail event, during which shoppers flock to malls to take advantage of price specials.
Karpowership South Africa (SA), the local entity of Turkish company Karpowership, has welcomed the granting of an environmental authorisation (EA) for its Saldanha Bay project by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE). It says this is another step forward for the company to supply power to the South African grid through the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP).
Creamer Media editor Terence Creamer discusses the lagging procurement of new electricity generation and addition of crucial grid infrastructure, as well as the dire situation at Transnet’s ports and rail systems.
The associations representing the wind and solar sectors as well as independent power producers (IPPs) more generally are eagerly awaiting a proposed curtailment addendum to Eskom’s Grid Connection Capacity Assessment (GCCA), which is published yearly to provide connection visibility for new utility scale generators. The latest GCCA was published at the end of October and states that, while there is still 19.9 GW of capacity available, all capacity has been absorbed in the Eastern, Western and Northern Cape provinces, as well as Eskom’s Hydra Central grid area, which borders the Cape provinces and the Free State.
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