Any public steps by South Africa that were suggestive of new coal having a place in the country’s future energy mix would be inconsistent with the intentions of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P) signed at COP26 in November, US Treasury climate counselor John Morton has cautioned. The partnership, which was also signed by France, Germany, the UK and the European Union (EU), includes an offer of $8.5-billion in climate finance to support South Africa’s transition from coal and negotiations are currently under way to convert the offer into an investment plan ahead of COP27, scheduled for Egypt in November.
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Eskom warned on Tuesday afternoon of a “very constrained” power system and said it might have to implement load-shedding at short notice. “Should there be any significant breakdowns, load-shedding may be required at short notice, most likely during the evening peak of 17:00 and 22:00,” the utility said in a statement.
The Council for Scientific and industrial Research (CSIR) has confirmed that 2021 surpassed 2020 as South Africa’s most intensive load-shedding year to date, as the performance of Eskom’s coal fleet continued to deteriorate. Load-shedding occurred for 1 169 hours, or 13% of the year, with an upper limit of 2 521 GWh, representing a 40% increase compared with the 2020 load-shedding upper limit of 1 798 GWh.
French State-owned electricity utility and nuclear group EDF has put its Nuward small modular reactor (SMR) forward as a test case of joint European regulatory review, the company has announced. The Nuward project was launched in September 2019 and is currently in the conceptual design stage. The Nuward will be subject to a joint regulatory review by the nuclear safety agencies of three European countries. These are France’s Nuclear Safety Authority (abbreviated to ASN in French), the Czech (Republic) State Office for Nuclear Safety (Czech abbreviation SÚJB) and Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK).
Buyout firm Actis is poised to sell its stake in Lekela Power, an Africa-focused renewable energy firm, as early as July, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The private equity company has entered into exclusive talks with Infinity Power, a joint venture between Masdar and Egypt’s Infinity Energy, to buy the 60% stake, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is not public. Lekela, which has renewable energy power projects in South Africa, Egypt, Senegal and Ghana, is valued at about $1.8-billion, according to one of the people.
Kenya’s State-run electricity distribution company is re-configuring power lines to prevent the electrocution of birds such as flamingos, pelicans and cranes. Kenya Power and Lighting Co has re-routed a 33 kV power line outside Lake Nakuru National Park to prevent flamingos and pelicans from flying into it, the company said in an statement Monday. Work is ongoing to relocate a 132 kV power line near the park that’s about 160 km north west of the capital, Nairobi, in the Great Rift Valley, to provide enough clearance for the birds as they take off or land.
Industry association the South African Wind Energy Association’s (SAWEA’s) Working Group for Policy and Markets has provided insights into announcements made last month delaying two renewable energy procurement rounds. SAWEA says the sector, in general, views the interrupted procurement as “unfortunate”, citing that this delays the achievement of investment, job creation and security of electricity supply that South Africa needs.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has approved the registration of a further 16 distributed generation projects with a combined capacity of 211 MW and a collective investment value of R3.65-bilion. The approvals were made during a regulator executive committee meeting on June 6, at which full-time regulator member for electricity regulation Nhlanhla Gumede stated that the 100 MW reform “is now truly in play”.
The Germany-based Power Systems business of UK-domiciled major international power and propulsion systems and technology group Rolls-Royce has taken another step towards achieving net-zero carbon operations, with the opening of a new solar power complex, or park, in southern Germany. The solar park, named Berghof, is located at Tengen, in the German State of Baden-Württemberg. The new solar power complex has a capacity of 3.7 MWp and will supply Rolls-Royce Power Systems with some 4 000 000 kW/h of electricity a year. This will cut 1 300 t of carbon dioxide emissions annually, compared with the conventionally-generated electricity available in Germany. The solar park has a design life of at least 25 years.
Creamer Media’s Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the latest developments in the Risk Mitigation energy procurement programme, what the prospects are for all the energy procurement projects that are under way, efforts to streamline processes for both utility and embedded generation projects and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s announcement that the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 will be updated.
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