OUTA made two submissions to the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy on 25 March, one commenting on the draft Electricity Pricing Policy and the other commenting on the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill. Read all about that here

Eskom has announced that the replacement of three steam generators at Koeberg’s unit 2 will be delayed, which means maintenance and planned outages of Unit 2 at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station will be delayed. This unit was shut down for maintenance and the generator replacement in January, but Eskom says it is highly likely it will take longer than the planned five month outage, so the work will be delayed. However, OUTA is not only concerned about the effect this will have on electricity supply, but also the ineptitude displayed by Eskom and the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) who still has to decide on a extending the Koeberg licence. See here

But rest assured, OUTA is keeping a close eye on this and other developments at Koeberg, including the Minister of Energy’s removal of Peter Becker, the only civil society representative on the board of the NNR, that we reported on here. It is concerning that there is currently no civil society representative on the board, as this can lead to decisions on nuclear that is not in the country’s best interest. We wrote to Minister Mantashe to ask when a new representative will be appointed, but it is not clear when this will happen. Becker is considering his legal options, which would likely result in court action. OUTA is monitoring the outcome. 

Liz McDaid also gave a presentation to the Electricity Wheeling Conference in Cape Town, arguing that electricity wheeling should be used to improve security of supply rather than another way for Eskom and municipalities to load electricity costs. Read more here.