Page 9 - AfrElec Week 27 2022
P. 9
AfrElec ESKOM AfrElec
SA Treasury considers legal advice
to reorganise Eskom’s $24bn debt
SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s National Treasury is seeking to indicate more urgency by the South African gov-
hire a legal firm to advise it on how to reorgan- ernment to resolve the crisis at Eskom, which is
ise the ZAR396bn ($24bn) debt held by national perceived to be damaging the popularity of the
power utility Eskom Holdings, Bloomberg ruling African National Congress (ANC).
reported on July 4. A barrage of negative news reports is also
The embattled company has recently causing divisions within the government. Gwede
requested proposals from legal firms on how to Mantashe, the energy minister, has “absolved
deal with the debt that has left the utility reliant himself of blame”, according to Bloomberg,
on state handouts to survive, people familiar while Pravin Gordhan, the minister of public
with the situation told the news agency. The peo- enterprises, told News24 that the government
ple asked not to be identified, as a public state- should cut the “damn red tape” to attract inde-
ment has yet to be made. pendent power producers (IPPs).
Eskom doesn’t receive sufficient revenue to According to Eskom’s chief executive Andre
cover its running costs and interest payments. de Ruyter, the utility would only be sustainable if
Power outages, known locally as “load-shed- its debt is reduced to ZAR200bn. The National
ding”, have been implemented since 2008 Treasury has previously considered various
because the company can’t meet demand. As a options for reducing Eskom’s debt burden,
result of recent labour unrest, Eskom deepened including moving a portion of Eskom’s debt onto
power cuts to so-called Stage 6 by taking 6,000 the sovereign balance sheet. The Treasury didn’t
MW off the grid in order to prevent a total col- immediately respond to a request for comment,
lapse of the system. said Bloomberg.
This new development, Bloomberg says, may
Egypt issues permit to
Russia’s ROSATOM to build
first nuclear power plant
EGYPT EGYPT’S Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory The initiation of works on the NPPs marks a
Authority has issued a permit to Russia’s State significant step forward for both countries. For
Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) to con- Egypt, it will catapult the country belatedly into
struct the very first reactor unit of the first ever the nuclear age, making a momentous contri-
nuclear power plant (NPP) in the country at bution to the country’s energy mix. Egypt tradi-
El-Dabaa on the North Coast. tionally relied on oil and gas fuelled power plants
In November 2015, the Egyptian government as well as renewable power sources to generate
signed an agreement with Russia to build Egypt’s its electricity needs. For the Russian side, setting
first NPP in El-Dabaa region of Marsa Matrouh, up a new-generation NPP on the African con-
which aims to generate a total of 4,800 MW of tinent is a remarkable milestone, opening up
electricity through four VVER-1,200 reactor potentially other export opportunities for the
units, with the first unit scheduled to be oper- country’s nuclear industry on the continent.
ational in 2026.
Week 27 07•July•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
