De Ruyter heads to Yale

Former Eskom CEO André 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 (paywall). A focal point of his lectures will be the South African power utility’s green energy programme, 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 the ANC were involved in corruption at Eskom that was costing the utility about R1-billion/month.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s available power capacity increased to about 29.2GW from 27GW in the eight weeks since May, as the country implements a plan to cut the severity and frequency of load shedding.

Read: Eskom may suspend load shedding by midweek

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 15GW from about 17GW, he said.

Read: US scientists repeat fusion ignition breakthrough

In another development, the national nuclear regulator has given Eskom until 31 March 2024 to submit outstanding information relating to an application for a licence to build a nuclear power plant at Thyspunt in the Eastern Cape.  — Eric Ombok, (c) 2023 Bloomberg LP

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