Eskom is to suspend scheduled load-shedding from May 5, the utility’s CEO, Jacob Maroga, said on Wednesday. ”We are seeing evidence of increased energy savings from municipalities and Eskom is optimistic that further reductions to reach our 10% savings target are possible,” said Maroga.
A national task team to urgently achieve the reductions required to reduce load-shedding and to achieve targeted power savings has been established, power utility Eskom said on Friday. This was done during Friday’s briefing set up by the government to help manage the energy emergency.
Consumers should carry the costs of fuel hikes and coal-price fluctuations rather than Eskom, the power utility said on Wednesday. Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga was arguing for regular electricity-price adjustments similar to those in the fuel sector. Eskom had suggested to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa a system, used worldwide, of ”pass-through costs”.
South Africa’s power crisis may last many years unless there is a drop in demand for electricity, utility Eskom said on Wednesday. A reduction in consumption should not damage the economy, it added. Eskom is rationing power to households and reduced supply to big industrial customers from January after the energy grid came close to collapse.
In the latest blow to South Africans already reeling from scheduled load-shedding, entire cities will now be plunged into darkness as Eskom institutes even more extreme power cuts. The shock development, which will be known as sector-sharing, will see the country divided into four vertical zones, each spanning many thousands of square kilometres.
Eskom is to begin with ”pre-emptive load-shedding” on March 31, chief executive Jacob Maroga said on Friday. These deliberate power failures would last no more than two hours and would take place between 6am and 10pm. ”The system remains tight,” he told reporters in Midrand.
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/ 27 February 2008
The City of Johannesburg on Wednesday launched a timetable of possible four-hour power cuts to help industry and residents plan ahead. The timetable, effective from March 1, divides the city into eight geographic blocks and sets out the times when planned power cuts could occur, explained Vally Padayachee, director of engineering operations for City Power.
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/ 21 February 2008
In order to generate electricity efficiently, Eskom will need to buy 45-million tonnes of coal over the next two years, the power utility said on Thursday. Eskom’s financial director, Bongani Nqwababa, said 30-million to 34-million tonnes have already been contracted and only South African suppliers will be used.
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/ 20 February 2008
Eskom is not as concerned about the domestic availability of sufficient coal as it is with the speed at which it could be mined, <i>Business Day</i> reported on Wednesday. The national power utility is also worried about logistical problems in transporting the coal to power stations.
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/ 14 February 2008
South African power utility Eskom will consider buying back ”significant” amounts of power from industrial customers in order to ease an energy crisis, CEO Jacob Maroga said on Thursday. Maroga also said industry had responded well to an appeal to cut electricity consumption by 10% after gold and platinum mines were forced to halt production.
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/ 14 February 2008
The power situation has eased somewhat over the past few days and there has been no load-shedding since February 4, Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga told reporters on Thursday in Sunninghill, near Johannesburg. Maroga was announcing measures to be taken by Eskom to resolve the country’s electricity crisis.
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/ 5 February 2008
Eskom has removed the man in charge of its power stations, the <i>Business Report</i> said on Tuesday. Ehud Matya has been replaced by Brian Dames, another Eskom executive, who will now be responsible for primary energy, power plants and his existing portfolio of capital investment.
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/ 30 January 2008
South African mining companies were set to resume production this week after power failures brought the industry to a halt last Friday. Anglogold Ashanti said it expected all its mines would be in full production by the end of the week. Gold Fields spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said: ”All our mines are busy mobilising as the power flow is being restored.”
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/ 25 January 2008
Switch off your lights is what the government is urging South Africans to do to immediately address what it calls a ”national electricity emergency”. On Friday, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin and Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica outlined several plans to alleviate the country’s electricity shortage.
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/ 23 January 2008
South African business leaders on Wednesday met the management of Eskom to thrash out ways to cope with an electricity crisis that has caused chaos in factories and offices. Businesses have lost hundreds of millions of rands since South Africa began being hit by rolling power cuts, lasting for up to four hours, about three weeks ago.
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/ 22 January 2008
An operational plan to deal with congestion at many road intersections resulting from power cuts has been devised, Johannesburg metro police said on Monday. ”The plan involves deploying officers at the off-ramps along the freeways,” said spokesperson Superintendent Wayne Minnaar.
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/ 21 January 2008
South Africa was set on Monday to ration electricity in a bid to stem a spiralling crisis that has dealt a severe blow to its status as the continent’s economic powerhouse. After mounting anger over daily power cuts that have cost business hundreds of millions of rands, the government said it was drawing up plans that could see consumers fined if they exceed set quotas.
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/ 17 January 2008
Power cuts are set to continue on Thursday, the Tshwane municipality said. ”Once again, load-shedding is due to Eskom generation constraints,” said municipal spokesperson Console Tleane. He said there was a slim chance that load-shedding would not be as ”intense” on Friday.
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/ 16 January 2008
The Public Protector is considering investigating Eskom’s power failures, which have recently left many parts of South Africa without electricity for hours at a time due to load-shedding. Lawrence Mushwana asks several difficult questions in a letter sent to Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga on Wednesday.
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/ 10 January 2008
Load shedding resumed nationally on Thursday morning due to technical problems at power stations, said Eskom. ”Load shedding will continue throughout the day and the risk remains high for the rest of the week, but should ease at the weekend,” said the company in a statement.
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/ 15 November 2007
The City of Cape Town says it has asked for a top-level meeting with Eskom over power cuts and their threat to new investments. The request comes in the wake of an announcement by the utility that South Africa faces another five to seven years of electricity failures. Load shedding was to continue around the country on Thursday evening, Eskom said.
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/ 10 November 2007
Eskom is looking at the possibility of increasing electricity tariffs by 18%, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) news reported on Friday. Eskom said the cost of building power stations — at R1,13-trillion over the next 20 years — and the rise in coal prices are to blame for the possible increase.
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/ 5 September 2007
South Africa’s largely coal-driven power utility Eskom has hit the limits of its capacity and aims to double output by 2025, with nuclear plants supplying more than a quarter of future energy compared with 6% now. Eskom’s chief executive Jacob Maroga told a coal conference on Tuesday the state-owned firm would cut back on polluting coal-fired plants.