South Africa’s state power utility temporarily suspended electricity cuts because of an improvement in available generation capacity.
Outages will be halted from 8 a.m. on Tuesday until 4 p.m., when so-called stage 4 loadshedding — the removal of 4,000 megawatts from the grid — will resume, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. said in a statement.
Power cuts have been imposed on 156 days this year because Eskom’s poorly maintained plants are unable to cope with demand. The blackouts are curbing economic growth, constraining government revenue and stoking inflation.
Eskom Burns 8 Billion Rand’s Worth of Diesel (June 5, 10:59 a.m.)
Eskom spent almost 8 billion rand ($416 million) on diesel to generate emergency power over the past two months, Business Day reported, citing the power utility.
The company is on track to spend more than it did on diesel in the past two fiscal years combined, the Johannesburg-based newspaper said.
Read More: Eskom Spends $1 Billion Running Diesel Turbines to Ease Outages
Electricity Minister Sees ‘Mafia’ Involvement in Eskom Procurement (June 6, 05:01 a.m.)
Organized crime with links to a so-called construction mafia in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province has infiltrated Eskom’s procurement division, News24 reported, citing Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
The efforts to defraud Eskom are contributing to corruption and sabotage that are a major part of the utility’s problems, the Cape Town-based news website cited the minister as saying. South Africa’s National Energy Crisis Committee is working with the police and crime intelligence officials to address the issue, he said.
Read More: Eskom Is Fighting Corruption at Every Step of Its Supply Chain
South Africa Would Limit Karpowership Contract Duration (June 2, 3:18 p.m.)
Any potential contracts with Turkey’s Karpowership to provide floating plants that would provide emergency power to the country will be limited to five years, Ramokgopa said.
The government in 2021 announced a tender that gave Karpowership and other bid winners 20-year supply deals, attracting the ire of environmentalists who said South Africa would be locked into using a fossil fuel for their duration.
“Any definition of an emergency is no longer than five years, I give you that assurance,” Ramokgopa told reporters in Cape Town.
