The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has announced its new board of governance, following its eleventh annual general meeting, held in Cape Town, on January 27. As the country accelerates its energy transition and pushes for energy security, the men and women who hold positions on this board will be charged with steering and advocating for wind, the industry body notes.
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Eskom has announced that loadshedding will escalate to Stage 6 on Tuesday night, after six generating units suffered breakdowns over the past 24 hours. Loadshedding will initially jump to Stage 5 from noon on Tuesday, until 21:00. From there Stage 6 will run until 05:00 on Wednesday. From there, Stage 5 would continue until further notice.
Integrated primary vanadium producer and energy storage solutions provider Bushveld Minerals produced a record 3 842 t of vanadium in the 12 months to December 31 and has set its production guidance for this year at between 4 200 t and 4 500 t of vanadium. Although production in 2022 was higher than the 3 592 t produced in 2021, output was slightly below the company’s revised guidance range of 3 900 t to 4 100 t as loadshedding resulted in about 200 t of lost production at Bushveld’s Vanchem processing facility, in Mpumalanga.
As economically-crippling loadshedding continues unabated across the country, President Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed that government is going through to motions of establishing whether a National State of Disaster could be declared to alleviate power cuts. Speaking at the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) National Executive Committee lekgotla in Johannesburg on Monday, Ramaphosa acknowledged widespread calls for a State of Disaster from various sectors.
Eskom reports that it is currently expecting to operate temporary stacks on the three Kusile units – which have been inoperable since October 23 when the Unit 1 flue duct failed in a way that also compromised the Unit 2 and 3 flue ducts – for about a year while permanent remediation works are carried out. The temporary stacks will bypass the flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) system and Eskom is, therefore, preparing to seek an exemption from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) in order to allow it to operate the units without using the air-pollution control system.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has acknowledged that tariffs that reflect the cost of producing electricity are necessary for Eskom’s financial sustainability, as well as for the utility to service its debt and to undertake the critical maintenance needed to end loadshedding. Writing in his weekly newsletter he also affirmed the independence of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) in setting such tariffs using a prescribed process, which includes public consultation, as well as the “importance of following the due legal process in setting tariffs”.
JSE-listed chemicals company Omnia on January 27 unveiled the 5 MW Phase 1 solar power plant at its Sasolburg operations, in the Free State, followed immediately by a sod-turning ceremony to mark the start of construction on an additional 5 MW power plant. This second phase of the solar power plant, which will bring the total capacity up to 10 MW, will be completed by September, Omnia manufacturing MD Francois Visagie said at the event.
South Africa has identified more than R60-billion of investments needed to help communities in the coal-mining Mpumalanga province as the industry gradually winds down, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said as she announced an additional $45-million in grant support. The investments form part of a 1.5 trillion-rand government blueprint to reduce South Africa’s reliance on coal, which is currently used to generate more than 80% of its electricity. A group of rich countries are backing that program, known as the Just Energy Transition Plan, with $8.5-billion in climate finance in the form of concessional loans, debt guarantees and grants. The US is providing more than $1-billion.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she’s confident that discussions aimed at extending restrictions on the sale of Russian petroleum products will be concluded within an approaching deadline that coincides with new European Union sanctions against Moscow. “We’re in the middle of discussions with all of our partners,” Yellen told reporters Friday while travelling in South Africa. “But I am encouraged we will be able to come to agreement by February 5.”
Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented until 05:00 on Saturday morning, after which it will be reduced to Stage 3, Eskom said on Friday. Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented nightly from 16:00 – 05:00 on Saturday and Sunday, while Stage 2 loadshedding will kick in from 05:00 – 16:00 on Sunday.
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