Tag Archive for: Electricity

Although Eskom confirmed that it would not make a profit from the sale of electricity to two ferrochrome producers at a tariff of 62c/kWh, the State-owned company nevertheless argued that the costs associated with forgoing the 12.8 TWh of yearly demand arising from the smelters would be larger and more damaging. Specifically, Eskom said the deal would allow it to avoid a R56-billion “downside risk” associated with take-or-pay coal contracts, while safeguarding R42.5-billion in revenue over the period of the smelter contracts, which also had take-or-pay commitments.

Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso has, in her latest newsletter, congratulated State-owned Eskom on a full year without loadshedding, describing this achievement as a “remarkable turnaround” from only three years ago when South Africa experienced 300 days of loadshedding, which negatively impacted on the economy. “While there are many contributors to this achievement, I want to congratulate, in particular, CEO Dan Marokane and his leadership team at Eskom. Through his leadership, the utility has implemented its Generation Recovery Plan, which has successfully improved plant performance,” she says.

Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses the growing challenge of municipalities’ failure to settle arrear debt owed to power utility Eskom, as well as the possible remedies to this growing problem.  

In South Africa, plans for the strengthening the country’s electricity transmission grid and further increasing renewable energy generating capacity were not yet in alignment, JUWI Renewable Energy Deputy Head of Project Development South Africa Beth O’Connor has pointed out. She was addressing a session at the Enlit Africa 2026 Conference, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, on Thursday. (JUWI was a utility-scale provider in the renewables energy sector, undertaking project development, engineering and construction, and operations and maintenance, for projects with a capacity of 30 MW and upwards.) She noted that the variability of renewable energy had impacts on the grid. Currently, the country’s grid was constrained in the Eastern, Western and Northern Cape, Free State and North West provinces, and partly constrained in Limpopo provinces. These provinces included most of the country’s renewable energy potential. 

In South Africa, the water utilities and systems were treated as stepchildren, by the various levels of government, affirmed Association of Water and Sanitation Institutions of South Africa (AWASI) chairperson and Rand Water chairperson Ramateu Monyokolo, on Wednesday. He was delivering a keynote address on the second day of the Enlit Africa 2026 Conference, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Municipalities used water and electricity as cash cows, he highlighted, adding that they did not reinvest in their water (and electricity) systems. They paid everyone on time, except for Eskom and the water boards. Municipalities currently owed water boards a total of R27-billion. One municipality alone owed R9-billion.