South Africa’s High Court has ruled that all government hospitals and clinics, state schools and the country’s police buildings be spared from power cuts.
(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s High Court has ruled that all government hospitals and clinics, state schools and the country’s police buildings be spared from power cuts.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan must “take all reasonable steps within 60 days” to prevent interruption of electricity supply due to rotational blackouts implemented by state-owned utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., according to a ruling by three judges from the court in Pretoria.
Read: South African Court Exempts Hospitals, Schools From Power Cuts
South Africa’s Review of Coal-Power Stations Expected by July (May 5, 3:21 p.m.)
A consortium of consultants that the National Treasury hired in February to review Eskom’s 14 coal plants and determine which ones can be revived to original equipment-manufacturers’ standards will present their findings by July to the National Energy Crisis Committee, Rudi Dicks, head of the South African presidency’s project management office said in online presentation.
Eskom is expected to implement the group’s recommendations to access 254 billion rand ($13.9 billion) of debt relief from the government over the next three years.
Reduced Outages at Weekend (May 5, 2:51 p.m.)
South Africa’s state-owned electricity provider will reduce power cuts over the weekend as it expects lower demand and some generating units to return to service.
Eskom will implement so-called stage 3 loadshedding, when it removes 3,000 megawatts from the grid, between 5 a.m. and 4 p.m on Saturday and Sunday. More intense outages will take place in late afternoons and at night, the utility said on Twitter.
Karpowership Allowed to Refile South Africa Power Plant Plan (May 4, 2 p.m.)
Karpowership secured permission from South Africa’s environment department to refile an application to moor a ship-mounted power plant in the eastern port of Richards Bay as the company’s stalled plans to affect a 1,220-megawatt electricity supply contract regains momentum.
The Turkish company withdrew its submission to deploy the 450-megawatt plant earlier this year after it faced a complaint that it hadn’t notified a competitor, which had its own plans for the port. On Wednesday, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment dismissed a complaint by a nonprofit against Karpowership’s plan to moor a similar plant at Saldanha on South Africa’s west coast.
Read: Karpowership Allowed to Refile South Africa Power Plant Plan
Pick n Pay Plunges as It Girds for $55 Million Extra Power Cost (May 4, 11:30 a.m.)
Pick n Pay Stores Ltd.’s shares plunged in Johannesburg as South Africa’s third-largest grocer by revenue reported earnings that were crimped by extra costs to keep fresh food chilled amid nationwide power outages.
The retailer estimates it will spend an additional 1 billion rand ($55 million) on diesel alone in the 12 months ending Feb. 26, almost double from the previous year.
One-Stop Shop for Energy Projects (May 3, 7:38 p.m.)
South Africa will establish a One-Stop Shop for energy projects on May 30 as part of plans to address the power crisis., Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo said in a speech.
The One-Stop Shop will provide a single entry point for all energy-related applications, he said.
Other measures being worked on include developing special legislation to reduce or remove red tape for energy projects that will accelerate solar, wind and battery storage projects as well as transmission infrastructure, he said.
–With assistance from Paul Burkhardt, S’thembile Cele and Janice Kew.
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