Electricity minister eyes Bay power plant
have VW Africa and Isuzu SA that are [located] outside of the Coega zone which makes it difficult to provide electricity to them, and even if you isolate the two, you still have other component suppliers dispersed all over the metro,” Mvoko said.
“Our discussion was to ensure that we’re able to supply electricity to our component suppliers even in their isolated locations.
“Any engagement to improve the situation in the metro would be welcome, and this initiative will be of great assistance for us especially in the automotive sector and original equipment manufacturers [OEMs] generally.”
VW Africa’s Kariega plant and Isuzu are the only auto manufacturers in SA that are not exempted from load-shedding.
The companies, along with other firms in industrial areas, are affected by load-shedding during stage 5 and up.
In a bid to stem the impact of load-shedding on manufacturing, the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber rallied manufacturers in the city to take part in a 24-hour voluntary load-shedding pilot project which allows companies to operate with fewer disruptions caused by daily outages in a bid to reduce the devastating effect of load-shedding.
On the calls for the two manufacturers to be exempted from power outages, Ramokgopa said the only OEMs that were not affected by load-shedding were those that shared infrastructure with national key points.
“The individual municipalities also have a dispensation in place that if load-shedding is below stage 4, they’re able to protect these assets [manufacturers].
“Unfortunately, this municipality doesn’t have that luxury.
“The more enduring solution is to ensure there is sufficient generation capacity across the country for everyone to receive uninterrupted and quality electricity supply,”
Ramokgopa said.
Wildlife and Environment Society provincial chair Dr Gary Koekemoer questioned why Dedisa had not been optimally used until now.
“Dedisa already links to the national grid so all of that is already in place at the moment, but the one thing that’s lacking has been the supply of gas.
“But there are plans to build a gas depot at the [Ngqura] harbour.
“The agreement between Dedisa and Eskom makes it too expensive to use Dedisa frequently but any additional support for the national grid would be welcome.
“I’m not sure if they have a new agreement between Eskom and them that makes it more viable,” Koekemoer said.
“The problem is Dedisa is what they call a peaking plant and only switches on when there’s high demand.
“Another problem is the gas component which from an environmental perspective is not the best.
“There have been no capacity issues at the plant per se but simply just the high cost.
“It’s a very expensive plant for the electricity you’re getting.”
Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber chief executive Denise van Huyssteen, who will participate in a stakeholder engagement session with Ramokgopa today, said she hoped for tangible action and measurable outcomes to help protect the security and continuity of electricity supply for businesses in the metro.
“Very importantly, we are hoping that this will help serve as a platform for further collaboration to take place between local, provincial and national government and business, which puts the best interests of our local economy and jobs first.
“Our greatest concern is the frequency of unplanned power outages and we are thus advocating for a solutions-orientated approach to be adopted to ensure that the electricity infrastructure is maintained and upgraded,” Van Huyssteen said.