This Wednesday, 20 September,  join African Energy’s John Hamilton, Tonderayi Mukeredzi and guests to discuss the difficult emergence of a new power industry in South Africa – the path to success and the opportunities and risks that lie along the way.

We will ask whether it is possible for most of the intensive energy users in the country to successfully implement very similar decarbonisation strategies.

To set the scene, the event will start with a few data-driven slides – drawn from African Energy Live Data – showing some of our work in progress, mapping the pipeline of renewables projects, the transmission network and offtakers.

Points of discussion:

– Is it possible for nearly every major energy user in South Africa’s industrial heartland to switch its electricity consumption from coal-fired baseload on its doorstep to intermittent wind power wheeled in from the western coast or further afield?

–Can enough transmission and storage infrastructure be installed to balance the grid operating in a different way to how it was designed?

–How much more transmission capacity is needed? And can this be funded via the Just Energy Transition Partnership?

–Faced with these challenges can the South African government, the energy regulator Nersa, and Eskom find a way of leading the transition, or are they destined forever to play catch-up in a market that is reforming itself out of necessity, without strategic leadership or guidance?

Guests contributors include:

–Thomas Garner, CEO, Earth & Wire
–James Mackay, CEO, Energy Council of South Africa
–Mandy Rambharos, VP: Global Climate Cooperation, Environmental Defence Fund
–John Smelcer, Head of Southern Africa, Globeleq

Register here:
https://www.africa-energy.com/events/south-africa-difficult-emergence-new-power-industry

The event is free for African Energy newsletter subscribers, African Energy Live Data subscribers, Africa Investment Exchange (AIX) members and those who have signed up to attend AIX: Power & Renewables in November.