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Opinion: Inclusive process now vital to define a collective electricity industry vision

In this opinion article, Energy Intensive User Group CEO Fanele Mondi says that, although reforms allowing for higher levels of own generation will make a significant difference, there is also an urgent need for South Africans to collectively shape the future of the electricity supply industry and to ensure a just energy transition for the benefit of all stakeholders
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IEA report points to growth in global electricity demand this year

The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects global electricity demand to rebound strongly this year and next.

Electricity demand decreased by about 1% in 2020, but is expected to grow by 5% this year and by 4% in 2022, a new IEA report shows.

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Eskom starts forum to strengthen relations with strategic suppliers

To strengthen its relationship with its strategic suppliers, State-owned power utility Eskom has introduced the Strategic Supplier Engagement Forum, with the first session held virtually on July 15. Addressing the supplier forum, which was attended by 29 suppliers, Eskom group CE André de Ruyter emphasised the need for Eskom and its suppliers to collaborate to take cost out of the supply chain, by focusing on a reduction in working capital, improving service levels and eliminating inefficiencies in Eskom’s procurement system.
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New initiative launched to raise awareness on key role of power grids in Africa

The RES4Africa Foundation, an Italian non-profit organisation that promotes the development of renewable energy on the continent, has launched a Grids4Africa initiative to support the development of the transmission and distribution networks needed to raise levels of renewables deployment and energy access. Nearly 600-million Africans currently do not have access to electricity and the Covid-19 crisis has, for the first time in a decade, reversed recent gains made in improving access.
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DMRE continues to monitor safety, security of energy and mining sectors

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) continues to monitor the safety and security of the energy and mining sectors amid ongoing acts of looting, destruction in violence across South Africa, but particularly in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe also continues to interact with all energy and mining sector role-players during the ongoing unrest, the department states.
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AfDB sustainable energy fund secures $90m in new funding

The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (Sefa), managed by development finance institution the African Development Bank (AfDB), approved seven high-impact projects worth $54-million in 2020, the fund’s 2020 Annual Report shows. The fund also attracted increased donor funding and secured commitments worth $90-million from existing and new donors in the year, including from the German Ministry for Development Cooperation and the Nordic Development Fund, both of which joined Sefa in 2020.
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Nedbank leverages additional tier one instruments to help drive a net-zero economy

To strategically finance the transition to a net-zero economy, financial services provider Nedbank has once again approached the investment market to raise ‘use-of-proceeds’ green finance, this time through the issuance of the first listed green additional tier one instrument by a financial institution in Africa. The equivalent notional amount of funding raised through the green additional tier one issuance will be directed strategically to support the financing of new green infrastructure projects in South Africa.
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Consortium unveils plans for zero-emission Eastern Cape e-methanol plant

An agreement for the development of a greenfield facility in Humansdorp, in the Eastern Cape, to manufacture zero-carbon e-methanol for sale locally and for export has been concluded by a consortium comprising Earth and Wire, ENERTRAG South Africa and 24Solutions. The proposed facility will produce e-methanol by combining green hydrogen, produced through an electrolyser using renewable electricity and desalinated seawater, with a synthesis gas, derived from a mixed feedstock of locally sourced biomass and unrecyclable municipal solid waste fed into a gasifier.
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Affected parties invited to comment on Eskom’s latest ash, gypsum disposal proposal

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has published, for comment, a draft amendment report on a proposed ash and gypsum co-disposal facility owned by State-owned power utility Eskom.

The Integrated Environmental Authorisation initially issued by the department in 2015 has since been amended three times.

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Steel giant to harness green hydrogen, renewables to produce zero-carbon steel

Steel group ArcelorMittal has signed an undertaking with the Spanish government in support of a €1-billion plan to construct a green hydrogen direct reduced iron (DRI) plant and a new hybrid electric arc furnace (EAF) at its facility in Gijón, in Asturias, as part of a pioneering move to transition the company’s Sestao plant, also in Spain, to a net-zero facility by the end of 2025. The proposed development has been outlined in a memorandum of understanding, signed this week, in which ArcelorMittal indicates that its Sestao plant is set to become the world’s first full-scale steel plant to manufacture zero carbon emissions steel.
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