After a life-time of self-imposed exile, providing consultancy services to utilities and government institutions around the world, and occasionally re-visiting South Africa, I detected a noticeable improvement in mood. People are happy and content; business confidence and international co-operation is up. Had South Africa turned the corner? Anything was better than the shambles of Brexit. […]
Following societal and industry concerns regarding what the Department of Energy’s decisions will be with regard to the latest update to the country’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) following public consultations and the public statements made by the leaders of certain political parties and labour unions, the minister of energy, Jeff Radebe, addressed the media regarding […]
. With all the emphasis currently focused on Eskom’s financial and operational sustainability and future structure, the utility’s environmental performance and sustainability is inevitably neglected, and indeed has become the sacrificial lamb on the altar of the money gods. In October 2018, an analysis and study of Eskom’s own air pollution monitoring reports, commissioned by […]
South Africa’s power utility Eskom is on the brink of collapse. It owes foreign and local lenders more than R400-billion, it receives insufficient income from the sale of electricity to service its repayment commitments, is owed about R35-billion in overdue arrear debt by direct users and municipalities and is bogged down by two enormous “ill-designed” […]
The recent stance by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, as reported in the Business Day, to “renegotiate” contracts with companies which won the first two rounds of South Africa’s renewable energy procurement programme (REIPPPP) will not afford South Africa the opportunity to create value, especially on the job creation front. Eskom’s current load-shedding crisis costs […]
Eskom is by far the largest of South Africa’s many state owned companies. This near monopoly power utility is in crisis. It’s the single largest threat to South Africa’s economy, according to a former minister of finance. Wits Business School’s Adjunct Prof. Rod Crompton explains why this is the case and what can be done. […]
. Considering its importance to the South African economy, many people are deeply concerned about Eskom’s financial status as a going concern. EE Publishers’ investigative editor and managing director, Chris Yelland caught up with Eskom’s new CFO to find out more about the utility’s financial position. Calib Cassim CA(SA) was appointed Eskom CFO in November […]
. There has been much speculation in the media on the pending restructuring and unbundling of Eskom. It is expected that President Cyril Ramaphosa will be giving some direction in this regard in his forthcoming state-of-the-nation address on Thursday 7 February 2019. For more than a year, in order to secure ongoing funding, there has […]
Policy debates in South Africa’s energy sector are becoming increasingly polarised, but it is critical to ensure broad participation if we want to re-imagine the energy sector and solve the country’s energy crisis, argued experts at a recent discussion hosted by the UCT GSB in conjunction with Power Futures South Africa. Breaking up Eskom’s vertically […]
. That Eskom needs to be restructured is no longer in question. In its current form, the organisation poses a systemic risk to the South African economy and is “too big to fail”. The real question is what form this restructuring should take. For sure, the generation assets need to be separated from the transmission […]
