Eskom latest: unplanned outages drop by 2 000 MW

Power outages will ease in South Africa on Wednesday because of an improvement in available generation capacity, state electricity utility Eskom said.

So-called stage 4 load shedding — in which 4 000 megawatts is removed from the grid — will be implemented until 5 a.m. on Wednesday, when it will switch to stage 1, the company said in a statement. That pattern will be implemented daily until further notice, the company said.

Karpowership, Mulilo have grid rights extended (July 31, 8:26 p.m.)

Eskom extended the right of least two companies to connect to South Africa’s power grid, keeping the struggling projects alive.

Karpowership, a Turkish provider of electricity from ship-mounted power plants, had grid access extended from July 31 until the end of the year, it said Monday. The access is for its three projects announced in 2021 that collectively could produce 1 220 megawatts.

Mulilo, which is part of two groups that in 2021 won bids for to provide a total of 395 megawatts, has also retained its right to grid access.

Court rejects interdict against grid rules (July 31, 5:11 p.m.)

A South African High Court rejected an application by developer G7 Renewable Energies to block new rules governing the connection of generation assets to the electricity grid.

The underlying argument that motivated the lawsuit against state utility Eskom has yet to be decided, according to G7. “We await the full judgment for consideration and look forward to projects coming online as soon as possible,” it said.

Eskom introduced its so-called Interim Grid Capacity Allocation Rules to alleviate pressure on the power system that arose due to a lack of grid connections. G7 said the process was unlawful and will impair the addition of more generation.

Unplanned outages decline (July 31, 7:36 a.m.)

Unplanned outages at Eskom’s plants fell to less than 16 000 megawatts in the past two months, compared with more than 18 000 megawatts previously, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

The reduction came about after the company cut planned maintenance in June and July, having undertaken significant repairs to its equipment in preceding months, Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter on Monday.

The government plans to release a detailed report outlining the work done to improve Eskom’s plant performance, the president said. A website is also being established that will enable South Africans to track the National Energy Crisis Committee’s work, see how to reduce consumption and save on energy bills, he said.

South Africa to boost grid capacity (July 30, 3:30 p.m.)

South Africa aims to scale up its grid capacity to address the crippling power shortages that have plagued the nation for 15 years and put the country on track to meet its decarbonisation goals.

It will extend transmission lines by 14 218 kilometers (8,835 miles) over the next decade and seek to increase its transformers six-fold by 2033 as it tries to keep pace with projected demand, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said.

Power outages constraining growth (July 28, 1:59 p.m.)

The central bank estimates that South Africa’s economic growth rate this year and over the next two would have been closer to 2% had it not been for frequent power cuts, according to Governor Lesetja Kganyago.

The central bank forecasts growth of 0.4% this year and an average of about 1% annually over the next two years.

Although load shedding, the local term for outages, “entered the South African lexicon 15 years ago, it has intensified over the past two years, placing a binding constraint on growth,” Kganyago told a meeting of the central bank’s shareholders.