Eskom land use programme
In April 2022, Eskom launched its land lease programme – a response to President Ramaphosa’s call for an “ambitious, bold and urgent response to the energy crisis”. The plan was to lease 36,000 hectares of Eskom-owned land in Mpumalanga to private sector companies that wish to develop their own power generation plants using renewable technologies….
read more >>Enabling municipalities to procure excess electricity from households
Municipalities are allowed to procure excess electricity from households (for example, from rooftop solar). This requires appropriate equipment to allow for net metering (that can track electricity fed to the grid as well as taken from it). Cape Town has introduced a net metering scheme in 2023 but to date is the only municipality to…
read more >>Gas BW1.5 (Richards Bay, Phakwe)
Following environmental authorisation approval by Minister Barbara Creecy in 2022 for the 2,000MW Phakwe gas power plant in Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone, two civil society groups, Groundwork and South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), filed for judicial review.
read more >>Mozambique electricity imports
On 22 June 2023, the cabinet signed an agreement for Mozambique to supply South Africa with 100MW of electricity within three months of the power purchase agreement. Three months later, the Mozambican government said that it wanted answers from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration as to why there had been no movement from Eskom on the…
read more >>Integrated Resource Plan 2025
In an effort to update in the 2019 IRP, the former DMRE issued the draft IRP 2023 for public comment in January 2024. It is intended to act as a blueprint for the country’s future energy mix and in so doing, guide the country’s plans to generate new capacity to produce electricity. Following extensive input,…
read more >>Increase in planned Eskom maintenance
The suspension of load shedding in late March 2024 was a result of increased maintenance coupled with reduced demand, given the increase in private generation capacity as well as the high uptake of rooftop solar. Eskom conducted more planned maintenance on its power stations in 2024 than in the previous four years. It led to…
read more >>VGBE report recommendations implemented by Eskom
National Treasury commissioned an independent assessment of all Eskom coal-fired power facilities to better understand their operational problems. Having received the VGBE report in September 2023, the electricity minister issued a 10-point plan which was drawn from the VGBE report. Some of the recommendations overlap with interventions in the Generation Recovery Plan. However, Eskom believes…
read more >>REIPPPP BW5
Of the 25 preferred bidders appointed, two are currently operational and nine are under construction. Fourteen projects have not reached financial close and their preferred bidder status was terminated. The 25 appointed bidders totalled capacity of 2,583MW, close to target, but the 11 projects that reached financial close have capacity of 1,159MW. There was a…
read more >>REIPPPP BW6
According to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), five projects were selected in BW6, with a total of 860MW of capacity, far short of the 5,200MW target. Of these, only two have reached financial close and are in construction, Virginia Solar Park in the Free State and Doornhoek PV in the North West….
read more >>Battery storage BW1
In November 2023, four bidders were announced as preferred bidders for four locations as part of the Battery Energy Storage Independent Power Procurement Programme (BESIPPP), while the fifth was announced on 2 April 2024. The BESIPPP BW1 aims to procure 513MW site-agnostic battery storage. Four of these projects totalling 257MW have now reached financial close…
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