electricity crisis - The African Mirror

Apr

20

2024

South Africa’s electricity crisis: a series of failures over 30 years have left a dim legacy

IN 1994, apartheid ended and the African National Congress (ANC) won South Africa’s first-ever democratic elections, promising “Electricity for All” as part of its Reconstruction and Development Programme. Back then only 36% of all South Africans had electricity in their homes. The development programme promised to double that number by electrifying an additional 2.5 million homes by 2000. This seemed achievable – during the 1980s, the state-owned power utility Eskom’s build programme was so aggressive it had surplus electricity. Some power stations even had to be mothballed. By 1994, South Africa’s coal industry was generating high-quality coal which was exported…

Nov

21

2023

By The African Mirror

S.Africa’s Astral Foods swings to loss on $109 mln electricity, bird flu hit

BUSINESS

SOUTH Africa's biggest poultry producer Astral Foods swung to a full-year loss, as an ongoing electricity crisis and the country's worst bird flu outbreak cost the company 2 billion rands ($108.9 million). Astral reported a 621 million rand operating loss in the full year ended September 30, compared to a 1.4 billion rand profit last year. Its flagship poultry division's 1.38 billion rand loss was partly offset by a 759 million rand profit from its feed division, which saw 12% revenue growth. The company said group revenue was flat at 19.3 billion rand but 1.6 billion rand costs associated with lengthy…

Jun

06

2023

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s power blackouts: solutions lie in solar farms and battery storage at scale, and an end to state monopoly

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

ROLLING blackouts are costing South Africa dearly. The electricity crisis is a barrier to growth, destroys investor confidence and handicaps almost every economic activity. It has raised input costs for producers and retailers and has triggered a new round of inflation and interest rate increases. Author DAVID RICHARD WALWYN, Professor of Technology Management, University of Pretoria Any solution will obviously incur cost because it will require the adoption of new technologies, such as large-scale grid-connected solar farms that are linked to battery energy storage. But these technologies are expensive. A solar farm consisting of 50 MW of photovoltaic panels with…

Mar

12

2023

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s power crisis: going off the grid works for the wealthy – but could deepen injustice for the poor

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

SOUTH Africa’s current electricity crisis has been described as “a perfect storm”. A number of factors have converged to reach this point: an ageing and inadequately maintained fleet of coal power stations, delays in upgrading the Koeberg nuclear power station and significant failures at the recently built Medupi and Kusile coal power stations. Authors CHRISTINA CULWICK FATTI, Senior researcher, urban sustainability transitions, environmental governance and resilience, Gauteng City-Region Observatory SAMKELISIWE KHANYILE, Researcher, Gauteng City-Region Observatory Since the beginning of 2022, power utility Eskom’s inability to meet the country’s electricity demand has resulted in unprecedented load-shedding (scheduled power cuts). In 2022,…

Mar

12

2023

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s power crisis: going off the grid works for the wealthy – but could deepen injustice for the poor

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

SOUTH Africa’s current electricity crisis has been described as “a perfect storm”. A number of factors have converged to reach this point: an ageing and inadequately maintained fleet of coal power stations, delays in upgrading the Koeberg nuclear power station and significant failures at the recently built Medupi and Kusile coal power stations. Authors CHRISTINA CULWICK FATTI, Senior researcher, urban sustainability transitions, environmental governance and resilience, Gauteng City-Region Observatory SAMKELISIWE KHANYILE, Researcher, Gauteng City-Region Observatory Since the beginning of 2022, power utility Eskom’s inability to meet the country’s electricity demand has resulted in unprecedented load-shedding (scheduled power cuts). In 2022,…

Feb

22

2023

By CARIEN DU PLESSIS

South African cities scramble to keep the lights on

NEWS

REELING from South Africa's worst-ever electricity crisis, local authorities across the country are turning to private suppliers to help businesses and households keep the lights on. President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a state of disaster over the energy crunch, which is seen wiping as much as 2 percentage points off economic growth this year. With South Africans spending up to 10 hours a day without electricity due to rolling blackouts by struggling state utility Eskom, the tourist city of Cape Town aims to halve power cuts for its residents by 2026, its executive director for energy Kadri Nassiep said. Officials plan to procure up…

Jul

02

2022

By The African Mirror

Eskom CEO says he briefed South African president on power crisis

NEWS

THE chief executive of South Africa's state power utility Eskom, Andre de Ruyter, said that he had personally briefed President Cyril Ramaphosa on an ongoing electricity crisis. Eskom has implemented the worst power cuts the country has seen in more than two years this week. It has blamed the outages on striking workers hampering efforts to bring faulty generation units back online. "We fully briefed the president on the situation. ... We discussed a number of potential options," de Ruyter told a news conference, refusing to divulge what was discussed. The meetings with the president included Public Enterprises Minister Pravin…