Energy plan paves way for gas, renewables

THE cabinet has approved a draft base case energy plan for South Africa‚ which paves the way for gas and renewables to provide the biggest chunk of new installed capacity by 2050.

There has been a significant reduction in installed capacity from coal compared with the 2011 integrated resource plan‚ although coal and nuclear energy will contribute most of the energy mix by 2050.

Energy Department deputy director-general Jacob Mbele said yesterday the nuclear energy supply would be commissioned and already in the system by 2037‚ with 1 000MW of hydro energy coming in about 2030.

A price of $5.4-million (R76.26-million) per megawatt of nuclear energy has been used for the scenario planning.

Eskom head of generation Matshela Koko said that‚ assuming nuclear capacity of 20 000MW was built between 2025 and 2037‚ this would require a 10-year lead time for construction.

So Eskom would continue with its request for proposals for a nuclear procurement this year to test the market. He emphasised that this was not the same as entering a contract.

Depending on the schedule for the retirement of Eskom plants‚ new coal baseload would be commissioned by 2028.

Mbele said in terms of the draft plan‚ 20GW of new nuclear capacity would be installed by 2050‚ between 35GW and 40GW of gas‚ 15GW of coal and 55GW of wind and solar. Initial new capacity would come from solar‚ wind and gas‚ with the new capacity coming in at the earliest in 2022.

The department’s deputy director-general‚ Ompi Aphane‚ said no big capacity installation was needed before 2022 but demand would escalate sharply thereafter.

Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson announced the revised draft integrated resource plan and the draft integrated energy plan at the media briefing.

Together‚ the draft plans project future energy demand‚ the supply capacity needing to be created to provide for this demand‚ and the desired energy mix to make up the supply. – TMG Digital