Latest news with #EnergyAvailabilityFactor
The Citizen
12-05-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Government-business partnership to accelerate delivery
Senior business leaders met with President Cyril Ramaphosa and ministers under the Government Business Partnership recently. The partners in the government-business partnership to accelerate delivery – the BLSA partnership have agreed to fast-track the implementation of key structural reforms and support performance improvements at Transnet and Eskom through an accelerated delivery plan and an intensified phase of its ongoing efforts to expedite delivery on priority interventions vital to economic growth and job creation. Busisiwe Mavuso, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), says in her latest newsletter that the Government Business Partnership, established in 2023, is focused on accelerating crucial reforms and operational improvements to lift confidence levels and drive economic growth in four priority areas of energy, transport and logistics, crime and corruption and youth employment. Youth employment was added in January 2025. 'The partnership believes that this acceleration is necessary to achieve a step-change in progress in response to difficult economic headwinds. Focus will remain on improving Eskom's Energy Availability Factor (EAF) and unblocking delays in new generation capacity to ensure a continued reprieve from load shedding. 'Work is underway to resolve grid access and allocation bottlenecks that hinder new generation projects. While Transnet's performance is not at the level required, it has stabilised and there is a significant focus on growing volumes, which will increase exports and revenue collected to support economic growth and preserve and grow employment.' ALSO READ: Government must keep momentum in partnership with business Accelerated delivery needed in complex environment She emphasises that expediting reforms and performance improvement is crucial to reduce the possible negative impact of the complex global and domestic environment, which continues to present substantial challenges and uncertainty. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projections for 2025 have been revised down and current forecasts remain far below the minimum of 3% economic growth required to create the level of jobs needed to make an impact on the country's high levels of unemployment, she says. According to Mavuso Ramaphosa said: 'Through the strength of this partnership, we have been able to unlock many constraints that undermine growth and job creation. While there is much to improve, the dedication and commitment from both government and business remains undiminished. The pace of our work must increase to match the scale of the challenge.' She says important progress has been made to lay the groundwork for sustained accelerated action, including the finalisation of the Transnet Network Statement, the launch of a Request for Information (RFI) to attract private investment in port and rail infrastructure and Nersa's approval of electricity wheeling regulations. 'These reforms enable broader private sector participation in energy, transport and logistics. Both the crime and corruption and the youth employment focal areas are largely tracking against their plans which have a longer-term time horizon.' ALSO READ: Housing, local gov and digital transformation at the forefront of Operation Vulindlela phase II Partnership welcomes second phase of Operation Vulindlela In line with the commitment to focused execution, the Partnership welcomed the launch of the second phase of Operation Vulindlela, which has a delivery focus that closely aligns with the Partnership's objective of more rapidly accelerating reforms and operational improvements that will drive growth and job creation, Mavuso says. She says at the meeting Adrian Gore, vice president of Business Unity South Africa (Busa) and business co-convenor of the Partnership, said: 'We are entering this accelerated execution 'sprint' with a real sense of urgency. 'Progress has been made, but it is not enough. This requires a step change in the pace of decision-making and execution. We need to redouble our collective efforts to help shift the country onto a sustained upward trajectory and deliver on our shared ambition of a virtuous cycle of growth, jobs, a more positive narrative and increased investment.'
Zawya
09-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Government Business Partnership sets three-month sprint to accelerate delivery
President Cyril Ramaphosa today convened ministers and senior business leaders under the Government Business Partnership. The partners agreed to fast-track the implementation of key structural reforms and support performance improvements at Transnet and Eskom through an accelerated delivery plan and an intensified phase of the Partnership's ongoing efforts to expedite delivery on priority interventions vital to economic growth and job creation. The partnership believes that this acceleration is necessary to achieve a step-change in progress in response to difficult economic headwinds. Focus will remain on improving Eskom's Energy Availability Factor (EAF) and unblocking delays in new generation capacity to ensure a continued reprieve from load shedding. Work is underway to resolve grid access and allocation bottlenecks that hinder new generation projects. Whilst Transnet's performance is not at the level required, it has stabilised and there is a significant focus on growing volumes which will increase exports and revenue collected to support economic growth and preserve and grow employment. Expediting reforms and performance improvement is crucial to reducing the possible negative impact of the complex global and domestic environment, which continues to present substantial challenges and uncertainty. GDP growth projections for 2025 have been revised down, and current forecasts remain far below the minimum 3% required to create the level of jobs needed to make an impact on the country's high levels of unemployment. The Government Business Partnership, established in 2023, is focused on accelerating crucial reforms and operational improvements to lift confidence levels and to drive economic growth in four priority areas: energy, transport and logistics, crime and corruption, and youth employment (the latter added in January 2025). President Cyril Ramaphosa said: 'Through the strength of this partnership, we have been able to unlock many constraints that undermine growth and job creation. While there is much to improve, the dedication and commitment from both government and business remains undiminished. The pace of our work must increase to match the scale of the challenge.' Important progress has been made to lay the groundwork for sustained accelerated action, including the finalisation of the Transnet Network Statement, the launch of a Request for Information (RFI) to attract private investment in port and rail infrastructure, and NERSA's approval of electricity wheeling regulations. These reforms enable broader private sector participation in energy and transportation and logistics. Both the crime and corruption and the youth employment focal areas are largely tracking against their plans which have a longer-term time horizon. In line with this commitment to focused execution, the Partnership welcomed the launch of the second phase of Operation Vulindlela, which has a delivery focus that closely aligns with the Partnership's objective of more rapidly accelerating reforms and operational improvements that will drive growth and job creation. Adrian Gore, BUSA Vice President and business co-convenor of the Partnership, said: 'We are entering this accelerated execution 'sprint' with a real sense of urgency. Progress has been made, but it's not enough. This requires a step change in the pace of decision making and execution. We need to redouble our collective efforts to help shift the country onto a sustained upward trajectory and deliver on our shared ambition of a virtuous cycle of growth, jobs, a more positive narrative and increased investment.' Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa.
The South African
01-05-2025
- Business
- The South African
Will there be load shedding this winter? Energy Minister gives his verdict…
On Wednesday, Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said South Africans could be in for a winter without load-shedding. This is thanks to improved generation capacity and the return of key power units. Speaking at the G20 Energy Transitions Working Group meeting in Cape Town, Ramokgopa expressed cautious optimism about a blackout-free winter. Ramokgopa emphasised that power plant performance is expected to match — if not exceed — last year's levels. He noted that there is 'no reason' for performance to decline, despite some ongoing challenges. Without giving too much away, he said a more detailed winter outlook will be presented on 5 May. 'When we went into winter last year, we didn't have Kusile Unit 6, so we didn't have that 800MW,' Ramokgopa told EWN . 'The second thing is that we didn't have Medupi 4. We will have Medupi 4 by the end of May, which has been out for about four years, so that's another 800MW.' 'We are also going to have the benefits of both Koeberg units.' To that end, Koeberg unit number 1 is expected to come back online in July. Altogether, the country is projected to have about 2 500MW more electricity during peak winter demand than it did last year. South Africans have a right to be skeptical however, after Eskom announced Stage 2 load shedding last Thursday. This marked the first time in over 30 days that the power utility enforced rolling blackouts. In a statement, Eskom attributed the load shedding to the loss of generation units and higher-than-usual demand. By Friday morning, the power utility declared that there had been a recovery of generation units, and suspended load shedding. Nonetheless, with winter looming, it didn't inspire confidence about energy availibility over the coming months. While acknowledging that the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) remained below ideal levels in April, Ramokgopa attributed the recent issues to isolated post-maintenance failures. 'That was post-outage failure,' the Minister added. 'When you take the unit out on planned maintenance, when it comes back, it can still present a significant number of challenges. So that's something the team is addressing.' 'I really don't foresee that we are going to perform below what we did last year.' Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
IOL News
24-04-2025
- Business
- IOL News
JUST IN: Eskom implements Stage 2 load shedding from 4pm to 5am Friday
Eskom has implemented Stage 2 load shedding from 4pm until 5am on Friday. Eskom announced the implementation of Stage 2 load shedding from Thursday at 4pm, lasting until 5am on Friday. The power utility said the decision comes in light of unexpectedly high electricity demand compounded by the loss of generation units and extensive planned maintenance work, placing an enormous strain on the already beleaguered grid. "As a result, Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented from 16:00 today and will remain in effect until 05:00 tomorrow (Friday). Given these ongoing constraints, we urge the public to use electricity sparingly to help reduce pressure on the grid," said Eskom. Last week, ActionSA expressed concern over Eskom's R3.6 billion diesel spend in just 30 days, calling it an 'unaffordable illusion' used to mask South Africa's ongoing electricity crisis. The party said government claims of ending load shedding are misleading, with diesel-powered emergency generation simply substituting blackouts rather than solving the core issues. ActionSA Member of Parliament, Alan Beesley, said: 'South Africa hasn't ended load shedding – we've simply replaced it with an unaffordable illusion, paid for by the taxpayer.' Beesley said that between April 1 and 10, 2025, alone, Eskom burned R1.34 billion in diesel. Yet, Eskom's Energy Availability Factor (EAF), the key metric for generation performance, sits at just 56.11 percent, well below the 70 percent target set by the Minister of Electricity. This also reflects a decline from the same period last year, when the EAF was 58.96 percent. ActionSA says this proves there are fewer megawatts available now than a year ago, despite significantly higher spending. 'That is not a recovery – it is a cover-up with devastating fiscal consequences,'' Beesley warned.
