AfrElec: South Africa turns to Turkey’s Karpowership amid worst ever power shortages

South Africa has reportedly made a new approach to Turkey’s Karpowership as it seeks to address its worst ever power shortages, which are causing the introduction of blackouts that last for 10 hours a day or longer.

The country’s previous approach to source 1,220 MW of emergency power from the company’s powerships became bogged down in legal challenges. But on January 23, Bloomberg, citing sources who asked to remain anonymous, reported that Karpowership could deploy its vessels, on which electricity is produced from ship-mounted generators, to provide between 700 MW and 800 MW to the South African grid within three months.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last week set up a power crisis committee, though what legal mechanism the government could use to secure energy from Karpowership is unclear. The committee has talked about using “emergency legislation” to fast-track electricity supplies. South Africa’s fleet of coal-fired power plants operated by Eskom Holdings continue to suffer frequent breakdowns.

The clamour for emergency provisions is growing partly because, as Bloomberg noted, the persistence of power outages is eroding investor confidence in South Africa.