Mainstream Asset Management SA: Uplifting communities through clean energy
This company believes in uplifting communities that host renewable energy projects
From the outside, Noupoort, a rural town in the Northern Cape, is pretty unassuming. With a population of under 8 000 (at last census count), the town boasts stunning vistas and views, but little else. That was until five years ago, when Noupoort became the host of a cutting-edge wind farm, which now powers 90 000 South African homes.
Mainstream Asset Management SA (MAMSA) manages this and other wind farms, and the company is firmly committed to uplifting communities such as Noupoort.
MAMSA manages five wind farms, contributing over 600MW of power to Eskom’s grid, on behalf of the project boards and shareholders. Titania Stefanus-zincke, General Manager of MAMSA, spoke to the Mail & Guardian about the company’s work.
MAMSA started managing the Noupoort wind farm five years ago, followed by two wind farms in Loeriesfontein, both in the Northern Cape. Since then, the company has taken on two more wind farms.
“Mainstream Renewable Power SA developed those assets, constructed the wind farms, and MAMSA, which is the asset manager, then took those into operation and continued managing the operations of these wind farms,” Stefanus-zincke explained.
MAMSA also oversees the regulatory and legal compliance issues including the sale of electricity to Eskom. “There’s a lot of regulatory reporting.”
MAMSA’S work also includes managing operations and maintenance, which includes managing service providers and suppliers providing maintenance of the turbines and the balance of plant electrical work.
Operating a wind farm is complex enough, but the proper management of the health and safety of employees and contractors is crucial. It also includes bird and bat monitoring and environmental and safety audits
— all undertaken by MAMSA.
MAMSA is committed to the communities around these wind farms. “It obviously involves a lot of stakeholder engagement with the community and liaising with government departments on how we can collaborate on projects,” she said.
Stefanuszincke firmly believes that community development should happen with communities, not to them. This philosophy is central to MAMSA’S assetbased community development methodology, which the company has rolled out to all the communities surrounding the wind farms it manages.
“We ran workshops in the communities — we have assisted them to identify the assets, strengths and skills that they have,” she said.
MAMSA has a wide range of community development initiatives. There are grants available to community members who qualify.
“The criteria is quite simple. If you are doing any socioeconomic activities that benefit the broader community,
or generating jobs in your community, and you’re already doing it yourself, then you can apply and access funds from us.”
MAMSA has also worked with the department of education in the Northern Cape on school infrastructure projects, and with the department of health, to provide PPE and medical equipment to hospitals and clinics.
“In fact, as recently as this month, we’ve donated an x-ray machine to a clinic in our Noupoort community,” she said. The list goes on.
MAMSA recently donated smartboards to a local school, and funded teachers’ salaries in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects in rural towns.
Key to this effort is ensuring that the project officers working with these communities are based in these communities. MAMSA gives its employees a great deal of support to incentivise them to stay in these rural towns.
This includes an employee assistance programme, which includes financial and legal assistance, as well as trauma counselling and employee wellness support. This has been particularly important during Covid-19, Stefanuszincke said. MAMSA’S support has been practical, too: the company has provided all of its employees with desks and chairs to ensure that their home environments are conducive to working.
Stefanus-zincke believes in working with government in uplifting communities, to maximise resources and align policies.
“I do believe that there needs to be a more collaborative approach to development, that you should do it as a sector or with the government, and not as an individual company,” she said. “And, that collective impact is greater than a companyspecific approach.”