The COP28 climate talks in Dubai ended in a deal that saw a commitment to transition away from all fossil fuels for the first time. The president of this year’s UN-sponsored summit, the UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber, brokered an agreement that was strong enough for the US and European Union on the need to dramatically curb fossil fuel use while keeping Saudi Arabia and other oil producers on board.
Electricity management and equipment company Schneider Electric has appointed Christophe Begat as Anglophone Africa Industry and Segment VP. Begat has been at the helm of the company’s operations in countries, including Iraq, Algeria, Singapore and, most recently, Nigeria overseeing the West African region. He has a career spanning 32 years at Schneider Electric.
The South African government will publish a request for proposals (RFP) for 2 500 MW of new nuclear capacity by March 2024, following the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) concurrence with a procurement determination published in 2020. Nersa’s concurrence, which was provided on September 2, had been conditional on the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) meeting several suspensive conditions, including establishing, through a demand and generation profile analysis, the rationality of adding 2 500 MW of nuclear, and confirmation that engineering, procurement and construction contract principles would be used during the procurement phase.
Renewable energy company Scatec’s Kenhardt hybrid solar and battery storage project has officially started producing and supplying electricity to the national grid from its three plants in the Northern Cape. The project has an installed solar capacity of 540 MW and a battery storage capacity of 225 MW, or 1 140 MWh, and delivers 150 MW of dispatchable power from 05:00 to 21:30 year-round to the national grid under a 20-year power purchase agreement with State-owned Eskom.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has confirmed that the draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) approved by Cabinet for public comment includes two time horizons as well as significant changes to the underlying assumptions that inform the plan when compared with the prevailing edition. However, she was unable to offer a timeframe for when the document would be Gazetted by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, nor could she provide specifics on the comment period that will be allocated and whether public hearings would be held.
Business Leadership South Africa CEO Busi Mavuso has warned of the deteriorating health sector without the prospect of recovery, owing in large part to the passage last week of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into law, barring the assent of President Cyril Ramaphosa. In her weekly newsletter published on December 11, Mavuso called this development a “shocking negative” for the health sector and noted its potentially dire consequences for the South African economy.
Eskom generation head Bheki Nxumalo has indicated that an extended outage at Koeberg Unit 2, which begins on December 11, is currently expected to continue until September 2024, increasing the prospect of both Koeberg units being out of service simultaneously from late July next year. Nxumalo provided an update on the outage schedule during a briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, at which it was confirmed that Unit 1 had been ramped up to 924 MW by December 10.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa reports that Cabinet has approved the release of an updated Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for public comment and also confirms that the document contains a revised decommissioning schedule for Eskom’s aged coal power stations when compared with the prevailing IRP2019 edition. The IRP update was approved during a special Cabinet meeting last week, held after the executive was unable to finalise several matters on November 29, the date that was meant to serve as its final meeting of 2023.
Daniel Leseja Marokane has been appointed as chief executive officer of Eskom. On Friday afternoon, Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan said Marokane would join Eskom no later than 31 March 2024.
Nonprofit economic research institution Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) has developed the second iteration of its framework to identify and measure just transition projects in South Africa, and will publish it in March. The first iteration of the framework was used to test theoretical assumptions about just transition projects against projects on the ground. It used an open call and an invitation to 70 companies known to be active in the space to gather data on projects, with the respondents drawn from a broad cross section of industries.
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