Eskom responds to Gwede Mantashe’s deceptive ‘masterclass’ in energy transition

Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe, in a “masterclass on the future of energy transition leadership”, hosted by the Wits Business School’s African Energy Leadership Centre on 17 August, spouted blatant and easily disproved half-truths and misinformation about South Africa’s nascent transition from coal to renewable energy.    

“Energy transition ... it’s a foreign concept for us. It’s foreign,” said Mantashe at the event. 

“Now they all came for me and I said it’s foreign because ‘just’ must talk to justice being done and seen to be done. Okay? And if we don’t see that justice being done, that transition can’t be just. We sit with my team here, we’ve analysed the Komati Power Station as an example of transition.

“They decommissioned a performing power station because of commitments in the Paris Agreement – we decommissioned it,” said Mantashe.  

Read more in Daily Maverick: R9bn Komati repurposing project ‘will need to be replicated hundreds of times’, says World Bank executive

Asked about Mantashe’s statement, Eskom told Daily Maverick that “Komati Power Station had not been decommissioned. All units have been shut down and the site is to be used for Repurposing and Repowering (R&R) with Solar, Wind, Battery and other projects. 

“This was in line with Eskom’s 2035 Strategy which does support decarbonisation, however, 7 of the 9 units had already been shut down for techno-enviro-economic reasons.”

The utility’s media team continued to explain that “Komati was the most expensive station in the coal fleet and units were shut down when continued operation required significant investment which Eskom did not have due to the severely constrained financial situation after many years of below prudent and efficient cost-reflective tariffs”. 

Continuing his so-called masterclass, Mantashe said: “It’s performing. Now I’m talking to load shedding in a way.”

In response to this statement, the Eskom media desk said: “Since May 2020, only one unit, unit 9, was operational with a nominal capacity of 114MW. From 1 March 2022 to 31 October 2022, unit 9 was performing at an EAF [energy availability factor] of 65.95%. This means that, on average, Komati could supply about 75MW to the grid. 

“One stage of load shedding is 1,000MW. During this period, Komati was the 4th best-performing station in the coal fleet. Note that the other stations typically have 6 units with total capacities of 2000MW to 4000MW.”

Continuing on his verbal journey of half-truths and falsehoods, Mantashe went on to say: “We decommission [Komati Power Station] it. We replace it with a solar farm. We reduce [the] megawatts supplied when we changed it. We cut the number of people employed hugely and therefore the ‘just’ part of a just energy transition fails outright. But it’s a transition … we move from coal to solar which is renewable. It employs fewer people, it gives us fewer megawatts, but it is cleaner.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: Despite Mantashe’s claims, the evidence is clear – clean coal is a dirty lie and economically unviable

In response, Eskom’s media team had the following to say: 

“Komati power station has not been decommissioned but it is a station in transition. The power plant will be converted into a renewable generation site powered with 150MW of solar, 70MW of wind and 150MW of storage batteries, thereby continuing to put the site and its associated transmission infrastructure into good use and providing economic opportunities to the community. 

“A containerised micro-grid assembly factory has already been established on-site. The development of the Komati Training Facility to facilitate the reskilling, retraining and upskilling of Eskom employees and members of the community, as appropriate, is underway. 

“Eskom has already signed a partnership agreement with the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to develop the training facility.” 

Read more in Daily Maverick: Shut down Komati Power Station first of its kind to be repurposed into renewable energy training facility

The team added: “No Eskom employees have lost their jobs as a result of the closure. 103 Eskom employees were reskilled, upskilled and transferred to other stations, and 153 remain on site. 

“The station is in transition and the jobs already created are limited to those created in the construction of the agrivoltaics plant (19). 

“By 2030, the project will have a significant positive impact on the local communities. There will be 660 full-time direct employee jobs created through repurposing and repowering, with 8,700 additional temporary jobs. 

“We will have trained in excess of 200 community members to make them employable in renewables and other parts of the value chain. In the months leading to the final shutdown, there were 205 employees at Komati and there are currently 153 employees at the site,” Eskom said. DM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk