Eskom to spend R10bn on efficiency measures

Jacob Maroga, Eskom\'s CE, said Eskom wanted to reduce demand by 500MW a year. He said part of reducing demand was to introduce a time-of-use tariff, with electricity costing more in the peak periods of early morning, evening and winter. The time-of-use tariff would be factored into an electricity price increase of inflation plus 13 percentage points, which Eskom wants to implement from next April. Both are still subject to approval by the National Electricity Regulator of SA. Strict new legislation is on the cards for SA households, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica has said, according to a report in The Star. Director-General Sandile Nogxina explained that his Department hoped to have the appropriate legislation in place early next year. Nogxina added that South Africans could even be issued with ‘energy quotas’ and that every appliance would be graded according to how much energy it used. The department was unclear how this would be enforced. Full report in Business Report Full report in The Star

One of its areas of focus is solar power. It is understood to be finalising an aggressive financial programme to incentivise the use of solar water heaters, the Mail & Guardian Online reports. Industry sources say close to a million solar-powered water heaters could be subsidised over a five-year period at a cost of R2bn. Consumers who switch to solar water heaters can expect to have about 30% of the cost of a unit subsidised by Eskom as part of its demand-side management programme. Full Mail & Guardian Online report

Eskom also plans to create more energy for the future, and will soon kick off what is likely to be a highly-contested public-participation process around its plans to build a 4 000MW conventional nuclear power station in either the Northern, Eastern or Western Cape provinces, reports Engineering News. It has identified nuclear power as a key part of its fuel-diversity plan, given the need to reduce its current over-reliance on coal, in line with SA\'s desire to reduce its carbon emissions. Politically, Eskom has the full backing of government to pursue nuclear energy on a far larger scale. Indeed, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin recently reiterated government\'s view that nuclear energy should play a far greater role in SA\'s primary-energy mix, adding, too, that moves to clear the way for the development of the first pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR), in the Western Cape, were intensifying. Meanwhile, the EIA documentation has been posted on the Eskom Web site, with the public-participation process to be overseen by Acer (Africa) Environmental Management Consultants. Full Engineering News site report View the EIA documentation on the Eskom site

The inclusion of Bantamsklip, outside Gansbaai, as one of five potential sites for a second SA nuclear power station has enraged environmental group Earthlife Africa and has residents of the town up in arms, reports The Mercury. The other proposed sites are Brazil, in the Kleinsee area of the Northern Cape, Duynefontein, near the existing Koeberg Power Station, Schulpfontein in the Northern Cape and Thyspunt, near Cape St Francis in the Eastern Cape. Maya Aberman, co-ordinator of Earthlife Africa, said Pearly Beach was a pristine site devoid of the infrastructure needed to build a plant the size of Koeberg. A feasibility study on possible sites for a PBMR found that two threatened vegetation species occur in Bantamsklip, as well as one of SA\'s rarest endemic coastal breeding bird species, the African black oystercatcher. Full report in The Mercury