Page 9 - AfrElec Week 36

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
DEBT
Eskom debt reaches $30bn
Eskom chairman Jabu Mabuza has told a parliamentary committee that the company’s debt has reached ZAR450bn (30$bn) and that it is completely reliant on government hand outs to continue operating.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Mabuza told a joint meeting of the Appropriations Committee, the Public Enterprises Committee and the Select Committee on Appropriations about the terms of the Special Appropriation Bill.
is aims to give Eskom ZAR26bn (1.7$bn) in 2019/20 and ZAR33bn (2.1$bn) in 2020/2021.
is is in addition to the ZAR23bn ($1.6bn) per year for three years announced by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in his February Budget.
Eskom does not generate su cient revenue to service its debt, which had reached its limits, and its liquidity has deteriorated, Mabuza said.
Without government support, it would have run out of money by October.
He said Eskom wanted to renegotiate the commercial terms of its independent power producer contracts.
He also said that Eskom could currently sustain ZAR200bn ($13.5bn) of debt, which means that the government would have to take on ZAR250bn ($17bn) of debt.
He said the current situation in which Eskom found itself was unsustainable. It had to borrow to service its debt, revenue growth had been about 1% a year over the past 10 years; tari increases had not been cost
re ective; and it had ZAR38bn ($2.6bn) in outstanding receivables.
“Cost savings alone will not solve Eskom’s nancial health. e only long-term solution is for the electricity price to migrate to cost re ectivity,” Mabuza said.
He told MPs that Eskom made a R20.7bn ($1.4bn) loss in the 2018/2019 nancial year.
GAS-FIRED GENERATION
Benin inaugurates Maria
Gleta gas engine power
plant
e government of Benin has o cially inaugurated the Maria Gleta gas engine power plant set to boost the country’s electricity capacity by 50%. Benin’s energy minister, Dona Jean-Claude Houssou performed the ceremony.
e gas engine power plant is located near the city of Cotonou. e plant was part of the government’s ‘Revealing Benin’ action plan, which centres around 45 agship projects aimed at strengthening macroeconomic development, consolidating democracy and improving the lives of the population.
e project runs on seven gensets from Germany’s MAN Energy Solutions, who built the plant in a consortium with Denmark’s Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC). It will supply the national grid with 127MW of electricity.
e government also signed an agreement with Total for the development of a oating
storage and regasi cation unit, which will ensure the supply of the Maria Gleta plant with lique ed natural gas (LNG).
e plant will mainly operate on natural gas keeping emissions at a low level, while ensuring fuel exibility through its dual-fuel capability. is combination connects an environmentally friendly power generation with a secure supply at all time.
e energy Minister revealed that the plant is planned to be expanded later to a total capacity of 400MW in future. Like most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Benin’s energy sector is largely dominated by the use of biomass-based energy sources (59.4%) followed by petroleum products (38.4%) and, to a lesser degree, electricity (2.2%).
COAL
ibambene Coal changes
landscape of South African
coal mining
Sibambene Coal, a 51% black-empowered coal mining company that is looking for coal assets, wants there to be fair competition to allow for new black mining entrepreneurs
to enter mainstream mining, the company’s director Sakhile Ngcobo said.
Speaking to delegates at the inaugural MCCI Coal Mining Symposium in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, Ngcobo stated that in order to change the landscape of the South African coal mining sector, the company was facilitating the entrance of new players.
Ngcobo said it was about time the model of black economic empowerment (BEE) changed to include new entrants. “Why should we see the same faces of empowerment over and over again? We have to change the approach to BEE. It can’t be the same.”
For its part Sibambene have created 12 companies that are owned mainly by black women and young people, including four community owned entities, with around 120 bene ciaries in total.
Ngcobo said that Sibambene wanted to
see government acting on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s undertaking to “use competition policy to open markets up to new black entrants, and invest in the development of businesses in townships and rural areas.”
e black-owned shareholding in Sibambene comprises: 100% black owned mining investment company Kalyana Resources (26% shareholding); 51% black women owned and 100% black owned
Week 36 11•September•2019
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