Page 3 - Energize June 2022

FROM THE EDITOR:

Updated IRP is on its way, but will

by Roger Lilley, Now Media it really be any different?

he minister of mineral resources and energy, Gwede cables and various electrical accessories and parts, frames and
Mantashe, announced recently that his department is clamps for solar PV panels, among many others.
Trevising the government’s integrated resource plan (IRP) for Regarding the concept of clean coal, the minister should be
electricity. given the facts. To make coal “clean” would be so costly that
The IRP 2019 was published in October 2019 as an update it would be impossible to offer electricity at affordable tariffs.
of the first plan which was published in 2011. According to the Although there are processes to capture and possibly reuse some
preamble on the Government Gazette in which the IRP 2019 was of the carbon emitted from the burning of coal, the cost of such
published, the plan is to be a “living plan to be revised regularly”. equipment is prohibitive.
South Africa waited for eight years for the first revision, so it’s Other pollution-mitigating equipment, such as flue-gas
encouraging to hear that the next revision will be published soon. desulphurisation (FGD) is also very expensive. At Kusile, for
Although the minister indicated that the revision would include instance, the only power station where FGD is being installed, the
an intensive reassessment of the plan’s assumptions, one wonders, cost, at R39-billion South African, is almost 50% of the original
based on his public comments, if the revised version will differ budget for the entire power station.
substantially from the existing version. In terms of the country’s commitment to reducing greenhouse
His ongoing support for new coal (which he refers to as “clean gases (i.e., air pollution) studies have shown that in South Africa,
coal”) and new nuclear power plants, and his seeming distrust of most of our air pollution emanates from the coal-fired power
renewables, leads us to believe that clean coal and nuclear will stations. This is particularly true for the Mpumalanga province
remain in the new plan. which has 12 power stations, all spewing out noxious gases and
Mantashe says that load shedding is a “burning issue” for deadly particulates day and night.
the DMRE. This surely means that he wants to address the issue But beyond all this, and because of this, funding for new
and deal with it decisively. Surely then, quick-to-build additional coal will be very difficult to find and therefore very expensive.
electricity generation should be his first choice. Commercial banks have stated publicly that they will not fund new
New coal-fired electricity generating plants would take ten coal-fired power generation projects, so if funding is found it is
years or more before coming on line, and new nuclear would take likely to be expensive.
even longer. When we consider how long it took for Medupi to When one considers Mantashe’s other pet technology, nuclear,
be completed and, seeing that Kusile is only two-thirds complete, it is our contention that South Africa simply does not have the
new coal – “clean” or otherwise – is a poor choice if we want load time or the money to entertain the notion of building new nuclear
shedding to end soon. power stations.
Rather, the department would do better to continue to Gas is another technology the minister seems keen on. While
encourage the private sector to roll out more and more renewable converting a coal-fired power station to gas-fired might be a good
energy projects. Energy storage is now reaching the point of option in the short-term, the cost and delays in sourcing a reliable
economic viability so that the major criticism of renewable energy supply of natural gas is likely to pose a real challenge.
– that it provides a variable supply of electricity which is unsuited We need reliable, affordable electricity now. The economy
for use where constant loads must be met – is no longer valid. needs to grow. Jobs need to be created. The ongoing shortage of
Furthermore, the minister is constrained by the government’s electricity is South Africa’s greatest hurdle.
objective to provide affordable electricity, reduce greenhouse In our opinion, the revised IRP should reflect the reality of
gas emissions, reduce water consumption, diversify electricity South Africa’s energy needs now and into the future. We need to
generation sources and improve localisation and regional meet our commitment to reduce air, water and ground pollution,
development. so we should phase out coal mining for power generation
Moreover, these objectives can best be met by a localised purposes, decommission and rehabilitate old coal-fired power
renewable energy sector where components, which can be made stations and focus on moving towards a truly clean electricity
locally, are made here. This includes towers for wind turbines, sector.

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