Transition
SA would do well embracing renewable energy independent power producers
were no consultations. As correctly pointed out by Minister of Energy Jeff Radebe recently, consultations date back to 1998 when the White Paper on Energy Policy was published.
In 2003, the government adopted the White Paper on Renewable Energy which proposed the introduction of renewables into South Africa’s energy mix. Various consultations took place which included labour unions through the National Economic Development and Labour Council when the draft Integrated Resource Plan 2010-2013 was published for public comment.
This included consultations on the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (Reipppp).
Renewable energy also featured strongly in the Green Economy Accord that was signed by social partners in November 2011 after widespread consultations with organised labour, business, government and various community constituencies at Nedlac. Renewable energy forms an important part of our National Development Plan which was drafted after extensive public discussions.
Given the vocal opposition to IPPS in the past three years, we need to remind ourselves why we went this route. First, the transition was brought about due to climate change and impact on health of communities as a result of fossil fuel emissions.
It is strange that those who oppose renewable energy ignore research, such as that of Life After Coal, which found annually there are 2 200 premature deaths and 2 239 fatalities caused by stroke, lung and heart diseases in communities near Eskom coal power stations in Mpumalanga. Many others have developed respiratory illnesses such as asthma and bronchitis. This is estimated to cost the economy R33bn a year.
When blackouts started in 2007, it became evident Eskom’s new build power generation had not kept up with demands from the economy. Fast forward to today, Eskom is in no position to invest in new generation capacity due to its poor balance sheet and huge debt.
Therefore, while Eskom management is grappling with the unenviable dual task of reducing rolling blackouts and saving the utility, South Africa would do well by embracing renewable energy IPPS, which take on full development, design, construction and plant performance risk.
Furthermore, all capital costs and responsibilities to raise and repay debt remain with the IPPS, thereby freeing up valuable cash resources for Eskom. There is no doubt IPPS can play a critical role in easing Eskom’s power supply constraints.
Having said that, we cannot ignore one of the criticisms against IPPS – they come at a huge cost. Bid window one and two of the Reipppp was more expensive than the cost to the consumer from ageing coal fired power plants. This tends to happen when a new industry or product is introduced.
Since then, costs have come down considerably in line with global trends. The average tariff from successful bidders during bid window one of the Reipppp (November 2011) for on-shore wind was R1.51 per kilowatt hour. This dropped to R1.19/KWH for bid window two in March 2013, 87cents per kwh for bid window three in August 2013, 75c per kwh in bid window 4 in August 2014 and 62c in bid window 4.5 (expedited) in November 2015. Such dramatic reductions should be embraced and encouraged. Eskom and IPPS should therefore co-exist and flourish for the benefit of the country.
It is good that President Cyril Ramaphosa highlights the need for government to “lead a process with labour, Eskom and other stakeholders to work out the details of a just transition, and proper, credible and sustainable plans that will address the needs of all those who may be affected”.
I emphasise “just transition” because like the introduction of new technology, there will be people affected by the changes.
Mbanjwa is regional managing director of Sener Southern Africa, a global engineering and technology group operating in the renewable, power, oil, and gas sector. IF YOU go to the Ditsong National Museum of Military History in Johannesburg, you’ll find a diorama of a prisoner of war (POW) camp – that looks like a mine because of the shaft that runs downwards – at the far end of one of the indoor display halls.
There is a switch on the side. Press it and the shaft lights up. It’s Harry, one of three tunnels – the others were Tom and Dick – that ran down and then across before emerging in the woods beyond the fence that runs around the perimeter of the camp.
The camp was Stalag Luft III, a German POW camp in Poland.
On Sunday night, 75 years ago, 76 Allied air crew officers went almost 9m down and out the other side – 73 of them were caught; 50 were then taken and shot by the German Gestapo on Adolf Hitler’s orders – in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention.
Those of us of a certain era and disposition know it as “The Great Escape”, which became immortalised in the classic 1963 film of the same name, starring Richard Attenborough and Steve Mcqueen, among others.
Three South African Air
Force officers – Lieutenants
Johannes Gouws, Rupert Stevens and Neville Mcgarr – were the among the 50 shot.
The most important South African connection, though, was Roger Bushell, the South Africanborn RAF squadron leader known as “Big X”, who had planned the mass escape – which if the original 200 Pows had made it, would have been the biggest ever, and both a major psychological blow and a massive headache for Nazi Germany in 1944, with just over a year left for World War II to run.
He was murdered, too.
The executions were war crimes. After the Nazis capitulated, the British took three years to identify the 72 Gestapo members involved. Eventually, 21 would be hanged. It’s an event that’s paled into insignificance by the war crimes that have been committed since the end of World War II.
The irony, 75 years later, is that the airmen (for they were all men) didn’t have to escape.
Stalag Luft III was by the standards of the time a very comfortable POW camp.
As officers, they weren’t forced to work like the other ranks, who did manual labour.
By the standards of POW camps in the Far East or later in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, conditions were almost halcyon.
Yet they were determined to escape, to get back to Britain – which was difficult – and continue fighting if they could, or join the various resistance movements and fight from there.
As Bushell told them before they began the mammoth
15-month task to dig out the
102m tunnel using hand-made tools: “Everyone here is living on borrowed time. By rights we should all be dead. The only reason that God allowed us this extra ration of life was to make life hell for the Hun.”
Perhaps that’s the problem with the world. We should be all be fighting oppression. We don’t, because we’re too comfortable – and not directly affected.
More’s the pity.
Ritchie is a media consultant. He is a journalist and former newspaper editor