Power Station Breakdowns Bring Back South Africa's Power Cuts
Power utility Eskom has said that units being out of service at two of its power stations, and the breakdowns of units at three facilities resulted in the need for scheduled power cuts. The embattled power utility had previously implemented loadshedding - as scheduled power cuts are called in South Africa - due to maintenance, network overloading in high-density areas prone to illegal connections, vandalism of electricity infrastructure and meter bypasses. The latest power cuts come after Eskom won the right to increase tariffs by 8.76% more for their electricity from April 2020, and municipal customers pay an additional 6.9% from July 2020. "In terms of intensity, 2020 is now the most intensive loadshedding year," Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's Jarrad Wright has said.
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South Africa:
Eskom Court Ruling Kicks Consumers While They're Down
Greenpeace, 3 August 2020
This week, the high court ruled in favour of Eskom in its legal battle with the National Energy Regulator NERSA, allowing Eskom to implement further electricity tariff hikes. Read more »
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South Africa:
Court Questions Nersa's Competence and Credibility As an Energy Regulator
Daily Maverick, 29 July 2020
The High Court in Johannesburg had tough words for Nersa and suggested that South Africa's energy regulator cannot do its job, judging from how it determined electricity tariffs… Read more »
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South Africa:
No Decisions About Our Energy Future Without Transparency, Says Groundwork
groundWork, 28 July 2020
In its court proceedings, groundWork is asking the North Gauteng High Court to order the Minister and NERSA to provide reasons for various decisions related to the Integrated… Read more »
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South Africa:
13 August - Eskom Implements Stage 2 Load Shedding
SAnews.gov.za, 13 August 2020
Due to an increase in generation unit breakdowns, Eskom is today implementing Stage 2 load shedding. Read more »
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South Africa:
Loadshedding 'Unavoidable' After Substation Blows, Says Mayor
GroundUp, 27 July 2020
Scores of protesters brought parts of Ward 24 in Pietermaritzburg to standstill on Monday over ongoing electricity outages in the area. Read more »
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South Africa:
Renewable Energy Must Become a Public Good
Daily Maverick, 27 July 2020
Three international energy research organisations have worked with Eskom trade unions to compile a report, Eskom Transformed: Achieving a Just Energy Transition for South Africa.… Read more »
InFocus
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Who is to blame for the latest wave of power cuts? Well, according to President Cyril Ramaphosa, sabotage is a factor. South African Communist Party General-Secretary Blade ... Read more »
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Incessant rains which hit the country impacting coal handling and operations, could lead to load shedding for the rest of the week, Eskom has said. The power utility said should ... Read more »
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