South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom is considering disconnecting the City of Tshwane, which includes the nation’s capital, Pretoria, due to the municipality failing to pay its outstanding debt. Tshwane breached the electricity supply agreement it has with Eskom by failing to pay R1.6-billion, which was due and payable on Aug. 17, the utility said in a statement on Twitter on Tuesday.
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State-owned utility Eskom and the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre (Saretec) have signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to formalise the collaboration between the two entities in developing renewable energy artisan skills in South Africa to support the implementation of Eskom’s just energy transition (JET) strategy. In support of this strategy, Eskom has a pipeline of clean energy projects at various stages of development and has acknowledged that there is a “dire” lack of skills along the value chain.
The IPP Office has announced a new timetable for the upscaled sixth bid window (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPPP) through which government will be seeking to procure a whopping 5 200 MW of new wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity during a single bidding round. Proceeding with the full allocation hinges, however, on the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) securing the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) concurrence with a new Ministerial determination expanding the procurement envelop for solar photovoltaic (PV) beyond that catered for under the existing Ministerial determinations.
Sasol, South Africa’s second-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, sees carbon taxes posing a “significant risk” to its business and warned current proposals could cause it to curtail operations and green initiatives. The government sees the taxes as key to meeting its goal of producing net-zero emissions by 2050, but has faced intense lobbying from companies to make them less onerous.
After three days without load shedding, Eskom warned that Stage 2 load-shedding might be implemented at short notice from 16:00 to 24:00, the peak evening hours, over the course of the week. This is due to power station breakdowns and delays in returning some generating units to service.
Technology group Wärtsilä has been commissioned to upgrade the electrical and automation systems to increase the reliability of the 216 MW Kribi power plant in Cameroon. The order with Wärtsilä was placed by Kribi power development company (KPDC) – a subsidiary of Globeleq, an independent power producer and the owner and operator of power generating facilities across Africa.
Operations and maintenance company Sebenzana APP is helping the Sendou Power Station’s majority owner Barak Fund and independent power producer (IPP) Compagnie d’Electricité du Sénégal (CES) to develop a natural gas-fired power station at Sendou. The gas-fired power plant is part of Senegal’s aim of moving to greater use of renewable energy supported by gas-fired power plants that use natural gas present in the country, says Sebenzana APP MD Andrew Carr.
Cabinet has welcomed the appointment of Thembani Bukula as chairperson of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) and Zandile Mpungose as deputy chairperson – both as part-time members.
It also welcomed the appointment of Precious Sibiya and Thembeka Semane as part-time members of Nersa, as well as the reappointment of Fungai Sibanda as a part-time member.
Electricity utility Eskom reported on Friday that Unit 2 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, which was returned to service earlier this month following an extended outage, was shut down after one of the control rods developed a mechanical problem. The utility indicated that repairs could take up to five days and that the probability of load-shedding had, thus, increased.
Eskom has cautioned the public that its generation system remains constrained and Stage 2 load-shedding could be implemented on Friday night, or during peak times on Saturday and Sunday. “The cold front expected during the weekend is also anticipated to result in increased demand for electricity, adding to the capacity constraints,” Eskom said.
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