Weekly projects and energy updates in South Africa

Five municipalities in Eskom cut-off reprieve

The municipalities have set up payment plans after the national power utility caused an uproar by threatening action against all defaulters.

Eskom has suspended planned supply interruptions to five municipalities‚ saying that payments have been received and payment plans agreed to.

This affects the Nketoana‚ Nala‚ Tokologo and Mantsopa municipalities in Free State Province and the Walter Sisulu municipality in Eastern Cape.

Business Day, 15 January 2017

IPPs want solution for all 26 outstanding renewables projects, not only some

The South African Renewable Energy Council (SAREC) indicated on Friday that, while it welcomed indications that Eskom was willing to reopen lines of communication on 26 outstanding renewables projects, it could only entertain a solution that remained faithful to the procurement process already concluded and dealt with all outstanding contracts, not only some of them.

In an interview with Fin24, acting Eskom CEO Matshela Koko indicated that, following consultations with the National Treasury and the Department of Energy, Eskom and the Department of Public Enterprises were preparing to present a solution to facilitate the signing of outstanding power purchase agreements (PPAs).

However, Koko also indicated that Eskom might only consider immediately signing contracts with 13 preferred projects selected on with (sic) tariff offers of 62c/kWh of less.

Engineering News, 13 January 2017

“Nothing further from the truth”: Eskom affidavit on its nuclear role

Eskom has dismissed a claim made in an affidavit that it managed "to usurp the nuclear procurement from the Department of Energy".

Eskom divisional executive of corporate affairs, Chose Choeu, was commenting Friday on a supplementary affidavit made by Earthlife Africa’s Johannesburg branch co-ordinator, Makoma Lekalakala.

Choue claimed he had been either "grossly misconstrued" or the affidavit was part of "a deliberate story … written to cast Eskom and the nuclear new build in a negative light".

Business Day, 13 January 2017

Eskom takes issue with negative reporting on nuclear expansion plans

Eskom on Friday said the public discourse on its nuclear procurement plans was biased, lacked intellectual depth and failed to grasp the technical complexities or the social benefits of the programme.

Responding to an article in Business Day, Eskom’s head of corporate affairs, Chose Choeu, complained: “The nuclear new build programme has suffered the unbridled mangling by various role-players, relentlessly to an extent that it has been soiled enough to assume the undesired status of a crude swear word.”

Choeu suggested that those who were commenting on the programme were not making a real attempt to “fully understand the mechanics of this irretrievably technical subject”.

Engineering News, 13 January 2017

Distribution on the verge of crisis

The electricity supply network in South Africa is heading for failure unless the Department of Energy, electricity utility Eskom, and city and town councils can find ways to fast-track infrastructure rehabilitation and new installation. 

"No doubt about it," says sector specialist Melusi Maposa. "Our failing electricity distribution infrastructure is seriously putting South Africa's economic growth at risk. If the lights went out in the past 12 months, then it was a distribution failure, not load shedding," says Maposa, MD of resources at Accenture Management Consulting.

In a 2015 National Energy Regulator of SA (NERSA) report, "one municipality managed only 2% compliance with the NERSA scorecard. Compliance is often a measure of quality of electricity distribution. No industrialist would start a business in a 2% compliant town."

Business Day, 12 January 2017

Eskom acknowledges renewables role

On Tuesday, South African power utility, Eskom, said that it acknowledges the significant role that the renewables programme has played in the reduction of load shedding.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed a methodology quantifying the net economic benefit of renewables – solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind. This is achieved by calculating the benefits of reduced unserved energy (load shedding), as well as cost savings to Eskom (avoided coal and diesel burn).

ESI Africa, 12 January 2017

SAREC slams Eskom for distorting facts in calculating renewables-related loss

The South African Renewable Energy Council (SAREC) has slammed as a “blatant distortion of facts” Eskom’s claim that the country suffered a net economic loss of ZAR9 billion in 2016 as a result of the state-owned utility’s purchases of power from the country’s renewable-energy plants.

It has also appealed to Eskom to sign outstanding renewables power purchase agreements (PPAs), arguing that doing so would ensure South Africa realised the benefits of the falling tariffs that have been achieved as a result of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

Engineering News, 12 January 2017

Eskom expects net economic loss to South Africa from renewables for next five years

Amid growing frustration around the pending amendments to the Integrated Resource Plan and the impact this will have on future renewable-energy projects in South Africa, state-owned power provider Eskom on Wednesday revealed that the economy has suffered a ZAR9 billion net loss for 2016, owing to a surplus of electricity capacity from solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy projects.

The utility added that this net economic loss could last for the next five years, forecasting that there will be a surplus of electricity capacity to 2021.

Engineering News, 11 January 2017