Energy Council of South Africa

Scatec ASA’s newly appointed GM for sub-Saharan Africa, Alberto Gambacorta, is leading the charge to advance a 5 GW pipeline of renewable energy and storage projects across the region. With a strong focus on South Africa, Scatec is positioning itself to leverage both public procurement opportunities and the growing private market, driving the country’s energy transition. Congratulations to Alberto Gambacorta and the Scatec team on their continued success and commitment to sustainable power solutions! https://lnkd.in/dsSjp3Wh #RenewableEnergy #SustainableFuture #EnergyTransition

It was a busy week at AEW. I particularly enjoyed meeting the Rystad Energy team and the discussion with Carlos Bernardo Torres Diaz, Snr vice President on “Energising Africa” A big congrats to Rystad Energy for opening their first Africa office in Cape Town. The need for data and empirical evidence is crucial to our Transition. I am bullish on SA and Africa growth. We have all heard the “Africa rising” promise many times so I’m not repeating that but; the African debt crisis is largely behind us, lower inflation and higher growth is a general consensus. I believe we will see high profile corruption prosecutions and will be off the FATF grey list. ABSA 2024 Africa review released last week at an event in London summarised SA position as the #1 financial market across Africa, summarised as Deep, Liquid and Advanced.

I have been attending Africa Energy Week in Cape Town. This is deep Oil and Gas territory and so distinctly different from the renewables sector perspectives from Enlit that I attended 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately these sectors continue to be positioned as adverserial, but they have such vastly different drivers and success factors that it’s not surprising and unlikely to change. Enlit was all private sector led with a dominant focus on rapid competition, technology and innovation. AEW has largely been Government led with a dominant focus on the slow progression of mega single investment deals and courting multinationals. We will need both models for decades to come, but ultimately I would bet on technology and innovation to deliver the greater value and competition to bring down price. Energy Council of South Africa

💼 Are you a young person interested in a career in the energy sector? 🎧 Tune in to the Energy Careers podcast below to hear about our Senior Manager of Operations Pippa Brown's journey and get career advice from other industry experts including Dr Enos Banda, Lungile Mashele , M.Inst.D and Craig Morkel. 🔆 In the words of Pippa "I believe South Africa has a very bright energy future and we all have an important role to play in it"

📢 Our member, Energy Intensive Users Group of Southern Africa, in partnership with C&I Solar + Storage Summit, is proud to host James Mackay, CEO of the Energy Council of South Africa, to be a speaker at the EIUG Inaugural Convention.    Be sure to catch his session!

Many critics predicted South Africa would remain with deep load shedding for many years. However, as we celebrate over 200 days of no load shedding, we must give credit to the many role-players who have helped achieve the rapid positive change in our electricity sector that has far exceeded expectations.   As we enter the next phase of complex reforms, we need to accelerate our energy transition with equal determination and effort. Our proven partnership with Government and the committed support of Business must be leveraged to fast-track inclusive economic growth.  NECOM 2.0 has been established to implement and target our most pressing issues and key initiatives will focus on accelerating private sector investment, establishing an energy market, expanding transmission capacity and advancing municipal reform strategies (EDI).   As we switch focus, we will discontinue the cumulative load shedding graphic. We hope that you have found our weekly updates useful.

The Energy Transition is happening faster than many people realise. SA needs to get to above 5GW per annum build rate of Wind and Solar, supported by a lot more BESS and Gas to Power.

I met with UK Pact, Dept of Energy security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and British International Investment while visiting London this week. Our strong historic ties with the UK and their genuine commitment to support our transition, is a big opportunity for SA. Also fantastic to see todays announcements as the UK doubles down on going green. 👏 “Great British Energy’s mission will be to drive clean energy deployment to create jobs, boost energy independence, and ensure UK taxpayers, billpayers and communities reap the benefits of clean, secure, home-grown energy.” Juergen Maier, GBE chair. 11 Green Hydrogen projects announced. This is also a real opportunity for SA to get into the supply chain.

Congratulations to our member Reunert Limited whose renewable energy business Apollo Africa secured their trading license from NERSA yesterday. The approvals mark an important milestone in the journey of establishing a competitive wholesale electricity market in South Africa, in line with the ERA Bill, and the Energy Council will continue to advocate for market enablement to support a sustainable electricity sector and inclusive economic growth. James Mackay Deon de Kock Jenna Harris https://lnkd.in/dQKD7weQ

The Energy Council of South Africa is proud to be a signatory of the #CEOPledge. Over 140 CEOs with a combined market cap of cR11 trillion, representing over 1.36m employees, have committed significant funds and resources to supporting this initiative (over R250M to date). ▶ Watch the video in the Business for SA post below to see highlights from the Phase 2 launch of the Government-Business partnership.