Posts

Eskom’s bailout emerging as equity swap by biggest bondholder

South Africa’s biggest pot of available cash – R1.91-trillion of civil-servant pensions and unemployment funds managed by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) – is emerging as the key to rescuing the debt-stricken national power monopoly. The money manager has approached its parent agency, the National Treasury, with a proposal to ease the R464-billion load of obligations crushing Eskom, signaling officials are gearing up for the complex financial and political operation to convert about R95-billion of Eskom debt held by the PIC into equity.
/by

Pan African appoints juwi South Africa as EPC contractor for R140m Evander solar PV plant

Gold miner Pan African Resources has entered into an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement with juwi South Africa to build a 9.975 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at its Evander Mines. Construction on the R140-million solar PV plant will start in the first quarter of 2021, with first power expected in the third quarter.
/by

EIUG notes concern about Eskom’s operational, financial performance

The Electricity Intensive Users Group of Southern Africa (EIUG) says it remains concerned about the operational and financial performance of power utility Eskom. This comes as Eskom on Monday reported an interim profit of R83-million, but warned of a full-year loss of R22.1-billion.
/by

Govt, IPPs a step closer to lowering electricity tariffs

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has managed to complete its first refinancing agreement with an independent power producer (IPP), which is part of an initiative to lower electricity tariffs. The department issued a statement on Monday in which it announced that it had concluded a refinancing agreement with the ACWA Power’s Solafrica Bokpoort Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) power plant. It is part of a refinancing initiative launched by the department in October 2019. All IPPs (64 projects) of the bid windows 1 to 3.5 were invited to participate in the initiative, with the aim to reduce the wholesale price of electricity.
/by

Eskom outlines streamlined restructuring model to deliver independent grid company by end-2021

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter outlined a streamlined approach on Monday to the vertical separation of the State-owned utility into three businesses of generation, distribution and transmission, which he said could accelerate the process of establishing an Eskom-owned independent transmission system and market operator (ITSMO) without the threat of any debt default. Speaking at the release of the group’s interim results to the end of September, De Ruyter again emphasised the importance of creating the ITSMO to support much-needed generation investment by independent power producers (IPPs) and indicated that the target date for the creation of a separate transmission entity remained December 2021.
/by

Global electricity demand to fall 2% this year, says IEA

Global electricity demand is projected to fall by about 2% this year – the biggest yearly decline since the mid-twentieth century and far larger than what followed the global financial crisis in 2008/9, which resulted in a drop in electricity demand of 0.6% in 2009, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports. In its inaugural ‘Electricity Market Report’, published on December 14, the IEA states that the contraction in demand this year is a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on economic activity.
/by

Hunt on for ‘tens of billions’ more, as ABB agrees to repay R1. …

Eskom and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) announced on Friday that an agreement had been reached with ABB South Africa in terms of which the multinational technology group would repay R1.56-billion to the State-owned utility to settle an overpayment dispute relating to a corrupt Kusile contract awarded in 2015. Eskom would, however, request the National Treasury not to blacklist ABB as a contractor, as the control and instrumentation (C&I) package in question was 90% complete and the appointment of a replacement contractor could delay the already-delayed Kusile by a further four years and raise the threat of standing-time claims from other contractors worth up to R1-billion.
/by

ChromeSA welcomes negotiated electricity pricing concession

Independent chrome ore producers group ChromeSA has welcomed the finalisation by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) of a short-term framework for negotiated pricing agreements, which will allow companies negatively affected by the high costs of power to negotiate lower electricity tariffs with those entities who supply their power. “This welcome move by government will provide critical support to our colleagues in the ferrochrome industry, who have highlighted the desperate impact that escalating power costs have on their ability to compete in global markets.
/by

Power4Less offers rent-to-own solar solutions

Black-owned and women-led solar company Power4Less, which was launched earlier this year by Juliet Mwakutuya, Dineshree Naidu and Nafeesa Fareed, aims to supply rent-to-own solar solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and larger company. “From our experience South African businesses are embracing solar solutions from SMEs to large corporates,” Fareed says.
/by

South Africa’s renewables plan presents ‘remarkable’ industrialisation opportunity

The roll-out of renewable energy at the scale envisaged in South Africa’s official electricity plan to 2030 presents a “remarkable” industrialisation opportunity, the leader of the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan (SAREM) project team, Francis Jackson, argues. Jackson, who is also a GreenCape special adviser, cautions, however, that the local industrial capacity built between 2010 and 2015 – when South Africa was procuring new capacity on a regular basis under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) – has since been downscaled and will have to be rebuilt.
/by