Strong interest in nuclear build

ESKOM said yesterday it has received interest from 27 companies who will submit information on their capabilities to build the proposed next generation of South African nuclear power plants.

The power utility said among those who will respond to its request for information (RFI), are China’s SNPTC‚ France’s EdF Energy‚ Russia’s Rusatom Overseas and South Korea’s KEPCO.

Eskom’s interim group chief executive Matshela Koko stated: “Eskom is looking forward to the information supplied to confirm our understanding of the key issues that impact the timing and affordability of a nuclear programme.”

The company indicatedthat the submissions did not commit any of the companies to submit a response to a potential future request for proposal (RFP). Eskom issued the RFI on December 20 and asked companies that felt they could provide relevant information, to confirm by 10.30am on January 31. The 27 companies will submit a response to Eskom on April 28.

The statement on the RFI comes as Eskom dismissed a claim last month that it managed to “usurp” the nuclear procurement from the Department of Energy.

The claims were made in an affidavit by Earthlife Africa’s Johannesburg branch coordinator‚ Makoma Lekalakala which was submitted to the Western Cape High Court.

The affidavit was made in support of the case brought by the antinuclear lobby group and the Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute (Safcei) to have certain determinations made by Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson declared unlawful and unconst one of those being‚ the 2016 determination designating Eskom as the procurer of 9 600MW from new nuclear energy plants.

But the department indicated in its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) last year that only 1 359MW of nuclear power would be added to the country’s energy mix by 2037 instead of the previous 2 023 and that renewable energy would form a large part of the energy mix. — TMG