S.Africa to build 2 gas power plants near Cape Town
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa’s state-owned electricity company Eskom will build two open-cycle gas turbine power plants near Cape Town to help boost waning capacity, the company said on Friday.
The two stations will cost about 3.5 billion rand and form part of a five-year 93 billion rand government strategy to upgrade energy infrastructure in Africa’s biggest economy.
“Both plants will add 1,000 megawatt peaking capacity and will be ready for the winter (May) of 2007,” Eskom spokesman Fani Zulu told Reuters, adding construction would start in the first half of 2006.
Eskom had already placed a 1.8 billion rand order with German technology group Siemens and was inviting tenders for the remainder of the work.
South Africa is scrambling for new power sources to meet rising demand, with excess peak capacity expected to start running out in 2007.
More: za.today.reuters.com
Related Travel Information
South Africa will offer preferential electricity pricing for large industrial projects to promote economic growth and job creation, the public enterprises minister said on Wednesday.
"It allows for longer contracting periods at a price that allows for certain elements of the charge that would be applicable for other users, to be foregone," Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin told reporters in Cape Town.
South Africa is pushing to lift economic growth to more than 6 percent from the current 4 percent and is looking to raise investment by 10 percent a year to help cut stubbornly high employment of around 26 percent.
Erwin
Wine tourism in the Western Cape brings in more than R4-billion a year, a figure the industry hopes to grow by using a Wine Tourism Forum to unleash the potential of this sector and link it to other empowerment opportunities in Cape Town and the province.
This was the word from Western Cape tourism body Cape Town Routes Unlimited's CEO Noki Dube, addressing a wine tourism workshop this week.
"One of the principal thrusts of the Western Cape's tourism growth and marketing strategy is the development of market-driven products and experiences which cater for the specific tastes of targeted groups of
S.Africa airlines mull litigation over fuel stocks
CAPE TOWN, Dec 13 (Reuters) - South African airlines were mulling legal action against petroleum producers on Tuesday as the fuel industry scrambles to meet motorists' demand for fuel from thinning stocks.
Air passengers were left stranded over the weekend at Cape Town International Airport after problems with jet fuel supplies caused lengthy delays and expensive re-routings.
Airlines were forced to refuel at other cities and carry extra fuel when supplies from the nearby Caltex/Chevron refinery were rejected due to wrong blending.
No replacement stock was available due to a national fuel shortage sparked by hitches in
Cape Town is looking forward to a bumper summer season, according to tourism experts.
British airline Virgin Atlantic Airways will increase its weekly flights between London and Cape Town from two to five in anticipation of an expected increase in travellers between the two cities.
Cape Town Tourism head Mariette du Toit said that although the city had had "a long and tough winter", the summer season was "looking very good".
"Bookings for hotels and other accommodation in the city have been very positive and, judging from the information we have received from our visitors centres, the number of visitors has increased over
India's Power Finance Plans IPO to Fund Electricity Projects
Power Finance Corp., a state-run Indian lender to electricity utilities, plans to sell shares in an initial public offering because it wants to increase lending, Chairman and Managing Director V.K. Garg said.
The loan provider aims to sell 150 million shares to local and overseas investors by mid-May, Garg said in a telephone interview from New Delhi on March 10. The shares will be priced on the basis of bids from investors.
``We need additional capital to further our business,'' Garg said. ``We want to increase our share of funding the
