Eskom latest: Ex-CEO heads to Yale; power availability improves

Eskom former Chief Executive Officer Andre de Ruyter will take up a position as a visiting senior fellow at Yale University.

He will begin the role at the end of this month, De Ruyter said in an interview with Rapport, a Johannesburg-based newspaper. A focal point of his lectures will be the South African power utility’s green-energy program, known as the Just Energy Transition, he said.

De Ruyter, 55, headed Eskom for three years. He stepped down from the position in February after alleging in a TV interview that senior officials in South Africa’s governing African National Congress were involved in corruption at Eskom that was costing the utility about R1 billion a month.

Bank group to roll out solar systems at 100 branches (August 7, 8:29 a.m.)

FirstRand’s retail and commercial banking division will install solar-power systems in 100 of its branches across the country. The project will start in First National Bank branches in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape province, Bethlehem and Phuthaditjhaba in the Free State and Zeerust in the North-West province, FNB said in an emailed statement on Monday.

The bank group is among scores of South African businesses investing in alternative electricity sources to reduce dependence on Eskom as the state-owned utility can’t supply interrupted power.

South African power availability improves (August 6, 3:24 p.m.)

South Africa’s available power capacity increased to about 29 200 megawatts from 27 000 megawatts in the eight weeks since May, as Africa’s most industrialised nation implements a plan to cut the severity and frequency of load shedding.

The measure has moved to an average of 60% from a low of 48%, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said at a briefing on Sunday. The unplanned capacity loss factor has improved to an average of 15 000 megawatts from about 17 000 megawatts, he said.

Eskom sets load shedding schedule for the week (August 6, 1:32 p.m.)

Eskom will implement so-called stage 1 load shedding — removing 1 000 megawatts from the grid — from 5 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Monday.

The intensity of outages will increase to stage 4 from 4 p.m., the utility said in a on Sunday. The pattern will be repeated through until Wednesday, it said.

Eskom granted extension for nuclear plant application (August 3, 7:09 p.m.)

South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator gave Eskom until March 31 next year to submit outstanding information relating to an application for a license to build a nuclear-power plant at Thyspunt in the Eastern Cape province.