On Tuesday, the eco-justice organisation joined Extinction Rebellion to demonstrate their opposition of offshore oil and gas extraction because of its potential to harm the ocean and destroy the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale fishers along the coast
13 March 2024
Green Connection (Cape Town) press release
It has been an interesting few days at the Africa Energy Indaba, currently in Cape Town, an event The Green Connection says “exposes the elitist approach to solving South Africa’s electricity crisis and reveals that government is completely out of touch with the needs and wants of the people, and climate change.”
The Green Connection’s Advocacy Officer Lisa Makaula says, “Firstly, with tickets costing approximately R15000, clearly this exclusive event is not meant to engage the masses to find solutions to the problems they are facing. Instead, what this event shows us, is that the business of energy and electricity generation and distribution is more about profit and not about people or the planet.”
According Makaula, “Young South Africans, who will be the ones left to deal with the devastating impact of increasing extreme weather events, need a more realistic, inclusive and forward-thinking approach to solving the electricity crisis. It is therefore bizarre that the energy minister is patting himself on the back for the few small steps taken to secure more renewable energy projects, while at the same time putting much more effort into pushing for more carbon-emitting fossil fuel investments. And while the minister seemed to brag that the National Petroleum Company “will be in action” next year, there was no mention of a National Renewable Energy Company, which is where we should be headed instead of adding more fossil fuels. The fact of the matter is, South Africa’s energy outlook still includes too much fossil fuels – which is making climate change worse – and not enough renewables, which is better suited.” Liziwe McDaid adds, “Unfortunately, the DMRE’s IRP2023 is another example of just how out of touch government is with the needs of the people and with what is required to address climate change. The current IRP – which sadly, is so much worse than previous versions – does not ensure energy security for the country and may actually lead to even more unaffordable electricity prices. Moreover, this IRP will make it impossible for South Africa to meet its carbon emissions reduction targets.”
“And to still be pushing Karpowerships, after years of unsuccessfully trying to prove its viability to South Africans. From the start, more than three (3) years ago, it made no sense why government thought that Karpowerships – with its potential to harm our oceans – were suitable for solving what should have been a short-term electricity emergency. Until now, the company has not met the requirements to secure environmental approval – because it cannot prove that its operations would not cause harm to marine ecosystems – in addition to not meeting the financial close deadline,” says McDaid.
In its case against the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), The Green Connection challenges Nersa’s decision to grant three electricity generation licenses to the Karpowership SA companies to operate powerships in the ports of Saldanha, Ngqura (Coega) and Richards Bay. This is because Nersa had issued these licences before it could take the environmental implications into account, since the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) refused to grant the powerships environmental authorisation. The Nersa court case is scheduled to be heard in June 2024.
McDaid adds, “We think it is important that South Africans know and understand exactly how the pricing for electricity from Karpower will work because, since we believe the price is not only linked to the Dollar/Rand exchange rate but also international gas prices, this could ultimately affect the price we end up paying for electricity. Any number of events could lead to electricity from this source becoming unaffordable, without warning. Moreover, from what happened in Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau – where Karpowership cut the power due to non-payment – relying on this energy producer to supply our electricity or to end load shedding is not in our best interest.”
In light of the country’s ongoing energy and climate crises, it is important that South Africa meets its energy needs in environmentally and economically sustainable ways. This can only be achieved with transparency and meaningful public participation in agreements that government makes on behalf of the people.
South Africa: Challenges Remain, but There Is Improvement At Eskom – Ramokgopa
On Tuesday, the eco-justice organisation joined Extinction Rebellion to demonstrate their opposition of offshore oil and gas extraction because of its potential to harm the ocean and destroy the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale fishers along the coast.
11 March 2024
Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, says trends are showing that there are signs of improvement and progress at Eskom.
He was briefing media on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan on Monday.
“It is important that in the midst of momentary setbacks, when you go to Stage 4 and occasionally go to Stage 6 [load shedding], we don’t lose sight of essentially what is the trendline.
“The best measure of this trendline is illustrated in the Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF), which is a combination of the reliability of the units and partial load losses. When we entered May [2023]… the amount of megawatts that were lost as a result of [UCLF] was averaging 17 369MW.
“The trendline has been going down and the best performance… was during the month of December, where we had about 13 473MW. Essentially, we retrieved about 4 000 additional megawatts. For the month of February, we have been able to claw back about 3 000MW,” he said.
On the question of why, if megwatts have been recovered, does load shedding continue, Ramokgopa had this to say: “We use that improvement in the UCLF, as we are taking units out on planned maintenance. We are using that opportunity for us to ramp up planned maintenance.
“As these units return, you will be able to see a completely different picture of the… intensity of load shedding and also the frequency of load shedding.”
Since May 2023, planned maintenance has ramped up from some 3 120MW to about 7 307MW in February this year.
Ramokgopa implored citizens to be patient, as the ministry and Eskom work to resolve load shedding over the long-term.
“If we had not ramped up that planned maintenance… or reduced it from the current levels by anything between 25% and 50%, we would have completely eradicated load shedding at least between those periods.
“It’s important that we play that long-term game… The outside experts have told us to… focus on planned maintenance. And it is for this reason that Eskom has gone to National Treasury and said ‘we need additional fiscal relief’.
“Eskom has deployed a significant amount of that money on planned maintenance. The units will return. They will return healthier and they will be able to perform,” he said.
The Minister said that avoiding planned maintenance could usher in catastrophic consequences.
“We could go on the short-term intervention expedient, [and] reduce this maintenance by up to 50%. But we guarantee you that there will be deterioration of these assets and then in three months, there’ll be total collapse, significant failures and we are going to find it very difficult to recover these units.
“We are confident about the prospects going into the future and those prospects are about reducing the intensity of load shedding, addressing the regularity of load shedding in keeping with that mandate given by the President,” he said.
Read the original article on SAnews.gov.za.
