The National Energy Regulator (NERSA) has rejected Eskom’s selective reopener of the third Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD3) Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs), which would have resulted in a total price increase of 25.3% for 2015/16.

Purchases of electricity by municipalities have decreased by 4.4% between the quarters ended December 2014 and March 2015, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Tuesday.

Eskom says it is set to continue with planned maintenance during the winter months, while the power utility also dispelled prospects of a total electricity blackout.

South Africa’s economy is expected to grow by three percent by 2017 as the country has taken several steps to address the challenge of energy, says Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene.

The cost of living in the country's economic hub will rise substantially as of July 1.

The repo rate is to remain unchanged at 5.75% per annum, the Reserve Bank said.

Stakeholders in South Africa’s construction sector continue to anxiously await the materialisation of the proposed R800-billion of public sector investment in the country’s infrastructure over the next three years.

Eskom’s newly appointed acting CEO Brian Molefe says the utility needs to find an additional 3 000 Megawatts of power in order to maintain power plants without implementing load shedding.

Eskom’s Sere Wind Farm near Vredendal in the Western Cape has achieved its full commercial operational capacity of 100MW.

In a first for South Africa, Calgro M3 is soon to launch a subsidiary that will operate completely off the national electricity grid, by generating its own renewable energy to run all aspects of the business, including that subsidiary’s administration office.