{"id":858581,"date":"2026-04-28T14:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=858581"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:36:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:36:57","slug":"good-news-for-30-year-old-giant-in-south-africa-the-only-operation-of-its-kind-in-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/858581\/good-news-for-30-year-old-giant-in-south-africa-the-only-operation-of-its-kind-in-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news for 30-year-old industrial giant – the only operation of its kind in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom and mining and metals group South32 have announced a new renewable energy project for the 30-year-old Hillside Aluminium Smelter in KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The groups said that they are “advancing discussions” on a new, long-term electricity solution for the Hillside Aluminium Smelter, targeted to commence in 2031.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is subject to compliance with all regulatory requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisations said they have a shared ambition to develop an energy system to boost and support Hillside\u2019s competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, it will contribute to regional economic stability and industrial growth while advancing South Africa\u2019s broader decarbonisation objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To support this ambition, South32 and Eskom have established a joint working group to explore mechanisms that can bring competitively priced renewable energy into the national grid,” they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will be backed up by affordable firming capacity, within the existing regulatory framework. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While this work will help support the long-term energy needs of Hillside, the solutions being assessed have the potential to benefit Eskom and its broader customer base,” Eskom added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to MyBroadband<\/strong><\/a>, South32\u2019s Hillside aluminium plant is South Africa\u2019s single biggest electricity consumer, accounting for roughly 5% of Eskom\u2019s total annual energy sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the country\u2019s only aluminium smelter and the largest in the southern hemisphere. In its 2024 financial year, it produced 720 kilotonnes of aluminium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It consumes around 10.3 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity each year, and its peak draw of 1,205MW is more than the capacity cut from the grid during one stage of load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The smelter is also an intense coal-fired power user, giving it a ‘high carbon’ status in terms of emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom said that the Hillside smelter is one of Southern Africa\u2019s most important industrial businesses, supporting a total of 3,650 direct and indirect jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, its impact is broader, contributing to an estimated 29,000 jobs across the economy, and playing a key role in supplying aluminium to the local downstream industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South32 Chief Operating Officer, Noel Pillay, said<\/span> Hillside has been operating for 30 years, and the project should ensure it can continue to operate for decades to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have made a solid start. It is important we continue this momentum, working towards a viable, low-carbon energy solution for Hillside from 2031, when the current electricity contract expires,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom and mining and metals group South32 have announced a new renewable energy project for the 30-year-old Hillside Aluminium Smelter in KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":858583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1164,25292,25007],"class_list":["post-858581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom","tag-hillside-smelter","tag-south32"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858581"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858585,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858581\/revisions\/858585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}