Call to scrap Grand Inga plan
Hydroelectric scheme is overpriced and susceptible to graft and other risks, environmental lobby group warns
The R80bn Grand Inga project, aimed at generating 40,000MW power on the Congo River, is overpriced and susceptible to graft and other risks, an environmental lobby group says.
The R80bn Grand Inga project, aimed at generating 40,000MW power on the Congo River, is overpriced and susceptible to graft and other risks, an environmental lobby group says.
The project, driven by three construction giants from Spain and China and expected to be funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Investment Bank, among others, has been embroiled in controversy since it was announced. This led to the withdrawal of the World Bank as a potential sponsor in 2016.
The hydroelectric project is not expected to begin producing power until 2024 or 2025.
In 2014, the SA government approved the ratification of the Grand Inga Treaty with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The treaty would entail SA buying more than half the power generated by the first phase of one of the world’s biggest hydroelectric projects.
However, according to International Rivers, an organisation aimed at protecting rivers and the rights of communities that depend on them, the project should be scrapped.
“The report on the Integrated Resource Plan [IRP] tabled in the energy portfolio committee [recently] correctly cautions against importing … electricity from the planned Grand Inga Project in DRC,” International Rivers said.
“This is to be welcomed. It is a reflection of growing opposition in SA and the DRC to the Grand Inga project that was agreed to during the Zuma era.
“Like the nuclear deal, the Grand Inga project is overpriced and susceptible to corruption and other risks.”
The IRP, the government’s long-term energy plan that was out for public comment until October, suggests there is no need for new nuclear power to be added to the grid and envisages an overall reduction in coal-generated energy by 2030.
According to the draft plan, new installed capacity to 2030 will include 1,000MW coal; 2,500MW hydro (imported); 5,600MW wind; 8,100MW solar PV; and 8,100MW of gas.
International Rivers said it supports the view of parliament’s energy portfolio committee that energy minister Jeff Radebe should assess the impact of the project in the light of comments received from a number of stakeholders.
“We think it is particularly important that the minister and the public are made aware of the huge additional cost of importing hydroelectric power from the DRC,” the organisation said.
A 2017 study by researchers at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley found importing power from Inga 3 would cost more than R400m more annually than domestic power generation. The study noted SA could meet its future electricity needs cheaper by harnessing its own solar and wind potential.
“This means that SA consumers will need to pay even more for their electricity in the years ahead [if the Grand Inga project proceeds], to the benefit of the Spanish and Chinese consortia, which stand to derive significant benefits from the project,” International Rivers said.
Companies from those countries would benefit to the detriment of the 30,000 people in the DRC who are set to be displaced by the project, it said.
“We didn’t need nuclear power, and we don’t need the
THIS MEANS THAT SOUTH AFRICAN CONSUMERS WILL NEED TO PAY EVEN MORE FOR THEIR ELECTRICITY IN THE YEARS AHEAD
Grand Inga project. The time has come to make decisions about our energy mix based on sound economic reasoning and humanitarian considerations,” the organisation said.
In its report on public hearings, the portfolio committee noted that stakeholders argued that there is no analytical basis for including power from Inga.
Some argued that the 2,500MW of hydro power should be removed from the final IRP, while others stated that if this was a political decision, the security of supply from the DRC and all transmission lines to SA should also be considered in the final IRP.
The committee recommended that the minister should ensure that the IRP focuses more on developing local industries than on reliance on imported technology.