South Africa’s Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. will cut 5,000 megawatts of power from the grid from 4 p.m. Sunday until 5 a.m. on Monday, instead of 4,000 megawatts, it said in a statement on Twitter.
(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. will cut 5,000 megawatts of power from the grid from 4 p.m. Sunday until 5 a.m. on Monday, instead of 4,000 megawatts, it said in a statement on Twitter.
The utility will thereafter cut 4,000 megawatts from the grid until 4 p.m. It will then repeat the pattern until further notice, it said.
Eskom CEO Shortlist Includes Ayanda Noah, City Press Reports (May 28, 9:34 a.m.)
Ayanda Noah, chairwoman of South Africa’s Central Energy Fund and former executive for customer services at Eskom, has been shortlisted to take over as chief executive officer of the country’s embattled power provider, City Press reported, without naming the people who supplied the information.
Other candidates include Dan Marokane and Vally Padayachee, the newspaper said. Both previously worked at the electricity utility.
Read More: Eskom CEO Shortlist Includes Ayanda Noah, City Press Reports
Ramaphosa Sets Powers for Minister to Address Energy Crisis (May 26, 5:34 p.m.)
President Cyril Ramaphosa allocated a range of powers to his electricity minister to enable him to address the nation’s energy crisis, almost three months after appointing him.
Kgosientsho Ramokgopa will be able to determine which energy sources should be used to generate additional electricity and has been given the authority to enable private-sector participation in the procurement of new capacity, according to a statement from the Presidency.
The announcement transfers some responsibilities away from Gwede Mantashe, the energy minister, who has faced criticism for stifling the government’s efforts to transition away from the use of coal, which is used to produce most of the nation’s electricity, and buy more green energy.
Pan African Slumps as Outages Cut Output (May 26 1:58 p.m.)
Pan African Resources Plc’s shares fell as much as 24% in London after the company said blackouts accounted for a third of the as much as 30,000-ounce reduction in its production target at operations in South Africa.
The company is installing renewable energy plants to cut its reliance on Eskom. Its stock fell to as low as 12.8 pence in London trading.
Unions Rejects Eskom Wage Offer (May 26, 12:30 a.m.)
Three labor unions representing workers at Eskom rejected the embattled state utility’s latest offer of 5.25% wage increases.
Another round of pay talks with the National Union of Mineworkers, the National Union of Metalworks of South Africa and the Solidarity union will be held on June 13 and 14 in a bid to reach a settlement, the utility said in a statement.
South Africa’s Commercial Capital Weighs Plan to Reduce Outages (May 25, 6:25 p.m.)
The power-distribution utility in South Africa’s commercial capital of Johannesburg will exclude key customers, essential services and some businesses from power cuts to reduce the fallout and attract investment.
The exemptions will start gradually from early next month, City Power said in a statement on Thursday. The changes come as the company considers a plan to cut daily outages for residents by half.
“Already most large power users and key business customers are excluded from loadshedding through the load curtailment agreements with the companies,” it said, referring to the local term for outages. “Other businesses, especially those in industrial areas and employ many people, will be gradually excluded owing to the reconfiguration of the network and other processes.”
Read More: South Africa’s Commercial Capital Weighs Plan to Reduce Outages
–With assistance from S’thembile Cele, Paul Burkhardt and Rene Vollgraaff.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.