African Utility Week, which will take place at the CTICC in Cape Town on 13 and 14 May, has a strong focus on large power users in Africa, helping them to reduce costs while increasing productivity through energy and water efficiency solutions. The exihibition floor will host two days of free, practical, CPD-accredited technical […]
Electricity supply constraints are a significant hurdle to future growth, but a regional approach using market mechanisms will go a long way to addressing electricity shortfalls and to reduce expenditure on wasteful projects, to the benefit of electricity consumers and economies in the whole region. Despite all the efforts, Africa’s quest for unity has […]
Koeberg Unit 2 was shut down for its 20th refuelling outage on 24 March 2014, having been online for 484 days since 25 November 2012. This bettered Unit 1’s record of 454 days of uninterrupted operation set between June 2000 and September 2001. This is also the first time in Koeberg’s history that one […]
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS), has launched Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Africa (MHPSA) in South Africa. The South African business of Hitachi Power Africa (HPA), primarily the Medupi and Kusile power station projects, has been transferred to MHPSA. This is as a consequence of the conclusion […]
A leak in a boiler pipe at Eskom’s Duvha power station on 30 March 2014 has resulted in the loss one of its 600 MW generators. This is the same power station which suffered a conveyor belt failure in December 2013, depriving the boilers of coal, with a subsequent loss of generation output, which forced […]
Eustace Davie, speaking at a media briefing at the Free Market Foundation recently, said that the IRP 2010 – 2030 update plan heralds a potential disaster and an exercise in speculative central planning. He says that the key problems are a lack of an independent transmission grid, no independent distribution grids, no competing generating […]
We bid farewell to Brian Dames, the outgoing CEO of Eskom, after his last day at the utility yesterday. With the earlier departure of former Eskom financial director, Paul O’Flaherty, and head of communications, Hilary Joffe, this signals the end of an era – short though it was, at about four years. While Dames’ departure […]
by Roger Lilley, editor Energize spoke to Prince Moyo, the general manager for power delivery engineering at Eskom about the utility’s ageing generation fleet, about his opinion regarding the feasibility, and pros and cons, of power station refurbishment versus new build. As we enter the second quarter of 2014, the fulfillment of the promise of […]
Eskom has appointed Collin Matjila as acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with effect from 1 April 2014. The former CEO, Brian Dames, left the company on 31 March 2014, after a career spanning 26 years. The new acting CEO, Matjila, is currently a member of the Eskom board and is the former chairman of […]
Eskom been downplaying and minimising the possibility of load shedding since the blackouts of 2008. Only a week ago, Eskom CEO Brian Dames told the assembled media that Eskom had the power system in South Africa fully under control. Yesterday, however, Eskom pulled the plug on the country and commenced with rotational load-shedding of domestic, […]
