Bloomberg News reports that according to sources familiar with the situation, SA has made fresh inquiries about securing electricity supply from Turkey’s Karpowership as it battles its worst ever power outages.
The approach follows a stalled attempt to procure 1,220 megawatts of emergency power from the company in a process that’s been mired in legal battles. Karpowership could apparently deploy its plants, which produce electricity from ship-mounted generators, to supply between 700 megawatts and 800 megawatts within three months. President Cyril Ramaphosa is under mounting pressure to ease a crisis that has seen the imposition of blackouts for 10 hours a day or longer. While it’s unclear what legal mechanism the government could use to secure energy from Karpowership, a power-crisis committee set up by Ramaphosa said last week that "emergency legislation" was being considered to fast-track electricity supply. The earlier agreement Karpowership secured as part of a 2021 emergency tender for 2,000 megawatts of electricity has been bogged down by lawsuits and challenges by environmental activists. The Department of Minerals and Energy backed the project, but a key complaint has been the 20-year duration of the emergency contract. Karpowership recently refiled an appeal with the environment department and still plans to push ahead with it. That power would be in addition to any secured through the latest inquiries.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Antony Sguazzin at Fin24
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