Page 11 - AfrElec Week 43

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
POLICY
South African union
threatens more power cuts
over Eskom split
South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) threatened on October 30 to cause more power cuts over the government’s decision to forge ahead with a plan to break up struggling state power firm Eskom, Reuters reported.
Eskom produces more than 90% of South Africa’s electricity and the country has endured several rounds of power cuts this year due to unplanned outages at Eskom’s fleet of coal-fired power stations, denting economic output.
The NUM, one of the largest unions at Eskom and part of the COSATU union federation aligned with the governing party, fears the plan to split Eskom into separate units for generation, transmission and distribution will lead to Eskom being privatised.
On October 29, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan presented long- awaited details of the plan to break up Eskom and open up the power sector to greater competition.
“NUM is angered with Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s decision to go ahead with the unbundling of Eskom,” the union said in a statement on Wednesday.
It made demands including that officials abandon the plan to split Eskom and cancel power purchase agreements with independent power producers.
“If these demands are not met we will shut down electricity generation, transmission and distribution, as such plunging the country into darkness,” the statement said.
A wage protest by unions last year forced Eskom into power cuts. Another large
union at Eskom, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), also opposes the plan to split Eskom.
Analysts welcomed Gordhan’s plans announced on October 29 but were sceptical that officials would follow through with them in full, given fierce opposition from unions and vested interests in the energy sector.
African Development Bank
appoints Moroccan expert
to Climate Change Council
The African Development Bank (BAD) has announced in a press release the appointment of a group of 8 renowned experts to the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM) Board of directors. Moroccan Fatima Zahra Taibi is among the appointees.
Taibi is a senior adviser to the partnership between the Technical University of Denmark and the UN Environment’s Climate Change Strategy and Energy Programme, known as the UNEP DTU Partnership.
The ABM is a new initiative designed to help identify and target public and private sector finance to fund projects that help minimise the negative effects of climate change The ABM Board is assisted by an interim secretariat in the AfDB’s Climate Change and Green Growth Department, led by Anthony Nyong.
“We have with us some of the brightest minds in the world of climate change, having gained considerable experience in different fields, and with different stakeholder groups for ABM. Their mission, noble and innovative, is to convince the world that adaptation measures, as well as mitigation measures, have value and must be rewarded,” said Anthony Nyong.
The BAD pointed out that the mechanism will help developing countries meet the
climate change adaptation needs and priorities set out in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), intended to reduce greenhouse emissions under the Paris Agreement.
The Paris Agreement came into force in 2016 as an international initiative aiming to combat climate change.
GRID
Egypt to export electricity to Sudan in 1Q 2020
Egypt will start exporting electricity to Sudan during the first quarter (1Q) of next year through a power line linking the two countries, with a capacity of 300MW.
Informed sources told Daily News Egypt that the Egyptian government has completed all the technical procedures for the project of electrical interconnection with Sudan, leaving only the completion of alternative feeding via a transmission line of 220-kV to connect the two stations from Owainat to Balat, in the New Valley governorate.
Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) officials are following
up the developments of the electricity interconnection project with the Sudanese side. There are some tasks and requirements that are being finalised to receive electricity exported from Egypt through the interconnection line including a follow-up from the German company Siemens.
The sources pointed out that Egypt has completed the implementation of 100-km lines up to Arqin, the border crossing between Egypt and Sudan. Both sides will soon start the agreement reviewing the exchange metre, production capacity, and the amount of energy that Egypt will supply to Sudan to start operation.
The sources pointed out that the financial matters and ways of paying the value of access to electricity, whether in cash or through other economic agreements are through political leaderships between the two countries.
Trade volume between the two countries reached about $364mn in the first eight months of last year, of which $222mn are Egyptian exports and $142mn are Sudanese exports to Egypt.
Egypt has invested heavily in the production of electricity during the past four years, and has a surplus of up to 20GW and is working to link with all neighbouring countries to export this surplus.
Week 43 30•October•2019
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