Page 13 - AfrElec Week 11 2023

AfrElec GAS-FIRED GENERATION AfrElec

Turkey’s Karpowership bid to feed

South African grid hit by complaint

SOUTH AFRICA TURKEY’S Karpowership, pursuing an appeal objection relates to the application to moor a
against an environmental ruling as it contin- power generation vessel in Saldanha. It was
ues with its bid to supply 1,220 megawatts of unclear what has happened to the applications
power to South Africa from ship-mounted for the two other moorings.
power plants anchored by the coast, reportedly The Green Connection had a previous envi-
faces a complaint from the Green Connection ronmental approval given to Karpowership over-
nonprofit. turned after lodging a complaint about impacts
Green Connection has alleged that Karpow- on small-scale fishers.
ership’s consultants misrepresented people as South Africa has suffered intermittent black-
small-scale fishermen in their environmental outs for around 15 years.
application, Bloomberg reported on March 7. In mid-January, South African President
The complaint was filed on March 6, a day prior Cyril Ramaphosa set up a power crisis commit-
to the date when Karpowership was set to get a tee. On February 9, a national state of disaster
decision on its appeal. was announced amid worsening power outages
South Africa is beset by rotational power and breakdowns of generation facilities across
blackouts that last up to 12 hours a day the country.
because of a lack of generation capacity. With There is concern that the failure to remove
the government struggling to address the the need for rotational power outages is eroding
power deficit, Karpowership won a tender investor confidence in South Africa.
two years ago to supply power from three Power-generation vessels of Karpower-
ships stationed at three ports. But lawsuits ship, owned by Turkish conglomerate Karad-
and environmental challenges have stopped eniz Holding, provide electricity to countries
Karpowership from starting up operations including Cuba and Sierra Leone. Supply deals
that would feed the grid. arranged with Lebanon have been hindered by
Bloomberg said Green Connection’s difficulties in obtaining payment.™

COAL-FIRED GENERATION

Botswana to bail out state-owned coal

miner Minergy

BOTSWANA BOTSWANA’S minerals and energy minister told the Sunday Standard.
has said there are no plans to close state-owned Minergy chief executive Morne Du Plessis
coal miner Minergy Limited’s Masama site, confirmed to Reuters they were in talks with
despite the halting of operations by a contractor both the MDCB and the Botswana Development
due to overdue payments, pledging a govern- Corporation (BDC) to secure funding.
ment bailout if needed to keep it afloat.. Production at the Masama coal mine was
Lefoko Moagi is quoted by the Sunday Stand- reduced in the wake of falling coal prices,
ard newspaper on Thursday (March 9) as saying which have dropped by at least 33% since
his ministry was working with the state-owned mid-December.
miner Minerals Development Company Bot- “Talks are ongoing and we are confident that
swana (MDCB) to remedy the situation. we will get help from the government. Masama
On Tuesday, Minergy announced production is a strategic asset for Botswana,” Du Plessis told
had ceased at Masama after the mining contrac- Retuers.
tor, Jarcon Open Cast Mining, downed tools due Previously, the MDCB and BDC have pro-
to overdue payments. vided more than 300mn pula ($22.35mn) in
“As described in the operating structure, Jarcon, funding for Masama to expand its operations.
the mining contractor is a company appointed by Masama has the capacity to produce 1.5mn
Minergy Coal, the company that holds the min- tonnes of coal per year and is the smaller of two
ing license. The mining contractor’s restructuring coal mines currently in operation in Botswana,
process is not an implication of closure of the mine. the other being the state-owned Morupule Coal
I can confirm there is no such plan of closure,” he Mine, with a 4.2mn tonne capacity. ™

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