Eskom battling against private power push
Eskom appears determined to defend its monopoly and return South Africa to a scenario where the state-owned power utility is the sole electricity supplier.
That is the view of EE Business Intelligence head and energy expert Chris Yelland and Efficient...
SA data centres must reduce Eskom reliance — Communications department
South Africa's Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) wants data centre providers to reduce their dependency on the national power grid.
This was revealed in its National Policy on Cloud and Data...
Real reason for drop in Eskom load-shedding
The extended relief in load-shedding in the past two weeks is not because of the improved performance of Eskom's generating fleet but due to a drop in demand for the power utility's electricity.
That is according to EE Business Intelligence founder...
Ramaphosa says end of load-shedding "within reach", takes credit for rooftop solar uptake
President Cyril Ramaphosa says that the worst of load-shedding is behind South Africa and that the end of the rotational power cuts is "within reach".
Ramaphosa made these remarks in his 2024 State of the...
Nersa approves power distribution licences to 3 private solar plants
South Africa’s energy regulator approved three licenses to operate electricity distribution facilities as the nation endures almost-daily power cuts.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) granted distribution...
Red Rocket energy company raises R3 billion for new projects
South African renewable energy developer Red Rocket raised $160 million (R3.07 billion) in funding from management and investment partners to help the business expand across the region.
The Cape Town-based company has built hydro...
Private power demand helps boost South Africa's GDP growth
Fixed-investment spending in South Africa grew by the most in almost three years in the second quarter as companies and households invested in alternative energy sources because of persistent power cuts.
A sharp rise in investments in...
Energy One Stop Shop aims to fast-track private power projects
Trade, industry and competition minister Ebrahim Patel launched the Energy One Stop Shop and Energy Resilience Fund on Thursday, 27 July 2023.
This is part of the Energy Mitigation Strategy through the National Energy Crisis...
New private power grid connection rules are bad news — IPP associations
New rules for connecting large-scale private power to the grid threaten to scare off investors, a major representative in the industry has warned.
The South African Independent Power Producers Association (Saippa) has told...
Eskom is losing business to private power
South Africa’s independent power producers are eating into Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s electricity sales, which are projected to fall 2% per year between now and 2027, according to Fitch Ratings Ltd.
Pressure on sales volumes is one of the factors that...
Private sector will add 4,000MW of capacity to South Africa's grid by end of 2024 — Government
South Africa expects private companies to add more than 4GW of electricity generation capacity to the grid by the end of 2024, as the government accelerates efforts to increase private sector...
Eskom issues second land leasing tender for private power
Eskom has issued a second tender for land leases that could see the building of as much as 500MW of generation capacity, it said in a statement.
The request for proposals, that will close on Feb. 27, is part of a program to encourage...
Stats SA looking to add privately-generated power to country's electricity stats
South Africa’s statistics agency is considering including self-generated power in its monthly electricity-generation data as more households and businesses reduce their reliance on state-owned utility Eskom...
Private power companies leasing land from Eskom to provide 2,000MW of renewable electricity
Eskom has signed leasing contracts with four renewable energy companies to build new renewable energy facilities on land owned by the power utility.
The four companies — HDF Energy SA, Red Rocket SA...
Joburg seeking 500MW of private power to fight load-shedding
Johannesburg’s municipality intends buying 500 megawatts of electricity from independent producers to help avert ongoing power outages in South Africa’s biggest city.
A request for proposals is awaiting approval from the National...
South African municipalities threatened by private power
Poor service delivery could see South African municipalities lose revenue from electricity tariffs as more private power producers are expected to come online in the coming years.
That is according to economist Dawie Roodt, who recently...
Joburg suburb wants to kick out Eskom and get private gas power
A section of the Linbro Park suburb near Sandton in Johannesburg wants to ditch Eskom and get electricity from a private power producer instead, Sunday newspaper Rapport reports.
Greenstone Energy has asked the National Energy...
Municipalities might become an obstacle in the way of private power
Municipalities could become a significant stumbling block for businesses that want to build private generating capacity to supply their own power.
Lifting the threshold for private power generation to 100MW has drawn praise...
Free State famers fighting takeover of private power network
A group of Free State farmers is fighting to keep the electricity distribution in their area out of the hands of dysfunctional municipalities.
Sunday newspaper Rapport has reported the Damplaas Kragbron utility in Petrus Steyn is...
Massive private power boost announced by Ramaphosa
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that government will lift the threshold for embedded generating electricity capacity from 1MW to 100MW, allowing households and businesses to privately build much bigger self-generating power.
“We are...