Gwede Mantashe has harsh words for Eskom as additional 1,759MW of renewables signed up

(Photo: iStock)

By Onke Ngcuka

8 Dec 2022

‘Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state,’ Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said as his department signed purchase agreements with independent power producers, securing 1,759MW of energy into the grid in the near future.

Thirteen more renewable projects have started the onboarding process into the Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP) Bid Window 5, adding a total capacity of nearly 1,759MW of energy generation to the grid in the near future.

The signing took place at a ceremony at the Independent Power Producers’ office in Centurion, Pretoria, on Thursday, 8 December, and now puts Bid Window 5 projects at 19 out of 25, with the rest yet to reach commercial close.

The signing was attended by the chosen bidders and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, and was hosted by Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Director General Jacob Mbele, with an address by Eskom’s MD for Transmission, Segomoco Scheppers.

In total, the programme has signed on 1,909MW of energy to the grid.

However, with grid capacity constraints, the additional power becomes futile, particularly when the programme is still facing bottlenecks with the Independent Power Producers’ office waiting for exemptions from National Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry.

After the Bell: Joburg Mining Indaba Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe. (Photo: Gallo Images / Jeffrey Abrahams)

“We are from the period of State Capture, but load shedding is becoming worse than State Capture,” said Mantashe, adding that the levels of crime and sabotage were limiting economic growth.

“Any other government can be overthrown for this level of load shedding. Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state. If it is not addressed, then the state will be failing to do what it needs to do… load shedding is urgent; it must be attended to sooner than later.”

He said “we’re engaging with Eskom more aggressively and telling them to get investment into the grid as quickly as possible… energy is always used as a factor that attracts investment into the economy”.

Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe at the Bid Window 5 ceremony. (Photo: DMRE)

The signing ceremony comes a day after Eskom had announced Stage 6 load shedding, citing power station breakdowns and a lack of funds to buy diesel for its emergency generation fleet.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Power station breakdowns and less money to buy diesel force Eskom to escalate rolling blackouts to Stage 6”

A fourth announcement of Stage 6 load shedding highlights the urgent need for renewable energy as well as sufficient infrastructure to onboard this power onto the grid. In its Transmission Development Plan, Eskom said it needed 53GW of new additional generation capacity, particularly for renewable energy security.

Despite grid capacity constraints, Mantashe announced the five preferred bidders for Bid Window 6. They are:

Kutlwano Solar Power Plant in North West;

Boitumelo Solar Power Plant in North West;

Virginia Solar Park in Free State;

Good Hope Solar Park in Free State; and

Doornhoek PV in North West.

Head of the IPP Office, Tshifhiwa Bernard Magoro, said in his address at the ceremony that 4,110MW of wind power under Bid Window 6 could not be allocated because of grid capacity that had already been allocated to the private sector. This also saw 2,200MW of PV in the Cape regions not being allocated.

The preferred bidders are expected to reach commercial close by April 2023, Magoro said.

The signed and announced preferred bidders will only see that energy generated between 12 to 24 months from their commercial closes, Mantashe said.

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Lea Giroux, senior business developer at Engie, a French part-state-owned IPP and gas distributor, is one of the companies that signed their purchase agreements at the ceremony. Engie SA has 300MW of renewable energy and 1GW of power plant energy, located in Durban and Gqheberha.

“[We arrived in South Africa] 20 years ago as the first IPP,” said Giroux. “We were on the first Bid Window, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth… of course we faced a lot of challenges during the four years when the programme was stopped… so we had four years of big doubts.”

SA corporates take a shine to solar power to improve energy efficiency A fourth announcement of Stage 6 load shedding highlights the urgent need for renewable energy as well as sufficient infrastructure to onboard this power onto the grid. (Photo: iStock)

The programme, considered one of the best in the world, had come to a halt under the leadership of then CEO Brian Molefe and Koko Matshela, former Eskom head of power generation.

Molefe had decided to stop the programme advancing beyond Bid Window 4, claiming that renewable energy had “disappointed” and that its technology would only be reliable in 10 years.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Grim Reippp(er) — undoing the choke-hold on SA’s renewable energy programme”

The decision to do away with the programme while Eskom was being looted under State Capture is partly why South Africa finds itself in an energy crisis, with the country experiencing the worst-ever levels of load shedding this year. DM/OBP

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

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