Eskom finalising plans for old coal-fired power stations to potentially run on gas, nuclear

“Clean coal”, natural gas or nuclear? In the next six months, South Africans should have a clearer picture of how Eskom thinks some of its aged coal-fired power plants will operate going forward following their “repurposing”.

In 2021, as part of its Just Energy Transition (JET) strategy, Eskom committed to “retiring nine coal-fired power stations by 2035, not investing in new coal plants nor returning to service coal plants”. This was in line with the 2019 Integrated Resources Plan, which anticipated that about 11,000 MW of coal capacity would be decommissioned by 2030.

In the time since, the approach has evolved with the shutdowns being delayed and managed to balance emission reduction commitments with the need to maintain grid stability and avoid exacerbating load shedding.

In recent weeks, that approach has been codified into a strategy that may see coal stations that were once due to be shut down finding a second life as nuclear power stations.

Read more: Delaying coal power plant shutdowns could push costs to R90bn, warns Eskom CEO

Presenting its Strategic Corporate Plan for 2025-2030, its Shareholder Compact for 2025-2026 and Budget for 2025-2026 to Parliament’s portfolio committee on energy and electricity, Eskom board chairperson Mteto Nyati last week explained: “What we have also done is to decouple the shutdown of the power stations from the implementation of the JET strategy and that decoupling has meant that now we are going to be doing what we're calling ‘repurposing’ of those power stations way before we shut them down so that we do not negatively impact the communities that depend on those power stations.”

The JET was one element of Eskom’s part of South Africa’s broader energy transition, where the country would, in line with international treaties, climate imperatives and the realities of the energy market, reduce the carbon intensity of South African society and its economy.

South Africa has pledged to reduce emissions to between 350 and 420 million metric tons annually by 2030, down from the current 442 million tons per year under its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2021. 

Eskom is the largest contributor to South Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions and the majority of those emissions, in turn, come from the utility’s fleet of coal-fired power stations.

Gas, nuclear or something else?

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