South Africa May Burn Heavy Fuel Oil to Ease Record Blackouts
- Talks over five-year powership contracts to begin this week
- South Africa is in the midst of its worst ever power blackouts
A Karpowership Powership.
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South Africa’s plan to alleviate blackouts by securing 2,000 megawatts of power from plants mounted on ships may include generating electricity by burning heavy fuel oil.
On Wednesday, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa told lawmakers that his ministry would start an emergency procurement program by negotiating power purchase agreements. Crucially, those contracts would be for just five years, he said, without giving further details, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is under mounting pressure to ease a crisis that’s triggered blackouts for 10 hours a day or longer.