Page 13 - AfrElec Week 20

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
COAL-FIRED GENERATION
ESKOM plans to delay closure of three coal plants
ESKOM plans to delay the closure of three of its oldest coal-fired power plants in order to meet current demand and deal with loadshedding.
The Grootvlei, Camden and Hendrina power plants could now be kept open until 2030, according to Eskom documents submitted to the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), a South African environmental watchdog, Bloomberg reported.
Citing documents the state-owned company submitted to the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), Bloomberg News said Grootvlei, Camden and Hendrina may operate until as late as 2030.
The three plants have the capacity to produce about 4,600MW, accounting for about 10% of the utility’s generation capacity, said the newswire. Eskom had planned to close their operating units down between 2020 and 2026, according to the CER.
“Due to present capacity constraints and in order to allow opportunity for other stations to undertake maintenance it has been decided to continue with the operations of Grootvlei, Camden, Hendrina with station shut-down occurring by 2030,” Eskom said in the documents. “Investigations in respect of this are underway.”
The decision will raise further concerns about South Africa’s commitment to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, said Bloomberg News. Eskom produces about 95% of South Africa’s power of which most comes from 15 coal-fired plants, it said.
Eskom tries to renegotiate World bank loan
Eskom is seeking to have the terms of a $3.75bn World Bank loan changed in order to avoid spending money to cut emissions from one of its largest power plants, Bloomberg reported.
The 2010 loan is being used to partly fund the construction of the 4,764MW Medupi coal-fired power plant east of Johannesburg.
It contains a “legal covenant” that Eskom must install so-called flue-gas desulphurisation, or FGD, equipment at the plant by 2025 to curb emissions of sulphur dioxide, according to the World Bank, said Bloomberg.
These are internal considerations that are
being discussed with our stakeholders and partners, chief of which are the World Bank and the government,” Eskom told Bloomberg.
“Eskom has had informal discussions with the World Bank, but no commitment or decision was made.”
Activists oppose chine-se coal plant in Zimbabwe
A network of local, regional and global civil society organisations (CSOs) has demanded that the Zimbabwean government stops a proposed $3bn coal power project at Sengwa in rural Gokwe, insisting it will worsen the adverse effects of climate change and leave affected communities poorer.
RioZim is set to implement the 2,100MW coal power project that will be bankrolled by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and will run in four phases of 700MW.
RioZim was weaned off the London-based Rio Tinto in 2004 and will run the project through Rio Energy Limited, its subsidiary.
The Rio Energy chairman, Caleb Denga, recently confirmed the project, which will be run in partnership with China Gezhouba.
According to Denga, a 250km pipeline will be constructed to carry water from
Lake Kariba, while Power China will build a 420-kilowatt-ampere line whic h will distribute electricity from Sengwa.
However, the CSOs, among them 350. org, a global advocacy outfit fighting against fossil fuels, Information for Development Trust (IDT), a local non-profit organisation promoting good governance, and the Centre for Alternative Development (CAD), last Thursday urged RioZim and the government to abandon the project.
Landry Ninteretse, the 350.org Africa MD, said in a joint statement by the CSOs that promoting coal power production was retrogressive since the world, China included, was dumping “dirty energy” and increasingly adopting renewable energy to safeguard the environment and vulnerable populations.
“Why should Zimbabwe accept a dirty source of energy, which is the biggest single cause of air pollution with devastating environmental impacts, at a time many countries are closing down coal plants?
“The international scientific community is telling us that the world cannot absorb any new fossil fuel developments if we are to tackle the climate crisis,” said Ninteretse.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Paris Agreement that encourages renewable energy and advocates against fossil fuels.
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