Eskom is battling to keep all the units of its biggest operational power plant open after being served with a compliance notice by South Africa’s environment ministry because of its high levels of air pollution.
Browsing: Energy and sustainability
The JSE-listed City Lodge Hotels group has invested about R20-million in solar energy at 25 of its hotels and is planning to expand the initiative to a further 12.
Minerals & energy minister Gwede Mantashe says energy regulator Nersa has already approved 75 applications from private companies wanting to generate energy for self-use.
Eskom will implement stage-2 rotational load shedding until at least Sunday, it said on Thursday. Rolling blackouts will begin at 9am and last until 6am on Sunday at the earliest.
South Africa received hundreds of responses to a call for 3GW of emergency power that it estimates could be brought online within two years.
South Africa’s Energy War Room, a grouping of the main cabinet ministers responsible for the power industry, will meet for the first time this week since being reconstituted by President Cyril Ramaphosa in December.
While some generating units have returned to service, the possibility of load shedding for the rest of the week remains, said Eskom.
Eskom’s new boss has taken a first step to reduce the indebted South African power utility’s bloated wage bill while avoiding a potential clash with labour unions.
Stage-3 rotational load shedding will be implemented from 9am on Saturday until 5am on Monday, state-owned electricity utility Eskom said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plans to overhaul the energy industry have some way to go before they provide answers to the nation’s crippling power shortages.