‘Politicians deceive us’

OUTA: STATEMENTS BOIL DOWN TO POLITICAL POSTURING AHEAD OF POLLS

Suddenly they have ideas on dealing with load shedding.

In what has been described as empty political posturing, experts have noted how politicians suddenly have ideas and solutions to the blackouts and load shedding they themselves have created.

With local government election campaigning in full swing, experts have noted how the Joburg mayor, Mpho Moerane, announced a power purchase agreement with the privately owned Kelvin Power Station for an extra 100 megawatts, bringing the total to 180MW.

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen, on the other hand, in a social media campaign, boasted how the party has been able to cushion Western Cape, which the party governs, from load shedding because of the Steenbras hydropower plant – and how this could be emulated elsewhere if the party was voted to power.

There are a few problems with this, though, as pointed out on Twitter by electricity expert Chris Yelland. He said the DA taking credit for Steenbras providing Cape Town with power was somewhat disingenuous.

Both Kelvin Power Station and Steenbras pumped storage schemes are not new, according to Professor Sampson Mamphweli, head of the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies at Stellenbosch University.

Also, what the potential voter is not told is that Kelvin, which is in Kempton Park, has reached the end of its lifespan and Steenbras stored excess electricity.

“Kelvin Power Station was built around 1957 with additional units done in 1969. All units built then have reached their end of life and need to be decommissioned. It had a total of 600MW but since December 2014 it has been providing only 200MW running one unit,” said Mamphweli.

“The power station supplies power to the City of Johannesburg, so there is nothing new announced by the politicians.”

He said the coalfired power station was now being converted to a gas-fired power station with a total installed capacity of 700MW, expected to be commissioned in 2023. “So it’s contribution will only be felt after 2023.”

Mamphweli said Steenbras pumped storage system was one of the oldest pumped hydro power stations in Africa, built more than 30 years ago. It belongs to the City of Cape Town and has 180MW installed capacity.

He said maintenance been done on the scheme for some time. The scheme, he said, involved pumping water upstream during the time when enough electricity was available and releasing the water, which goes through turbines and generates electricity.

“It’s basically storing excess electricity. I am not sure why politicians would mention these two electricity generation systems now,” Mamphweli added.

According to the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), all these apparent propaganda statements boiled down to sheer political posturing ahead of the local government polls on 1 November.

“We have also seen it on e-tolls, tackling corruption, illegal immigrants and other issues. I guess it is a reality around the world,” said Outa’s Wayne Duvenage.

“The real issue is that today, political parties are using social media platforms to get their stories or propaganda out there and the public will have to decide on the authenticity thereof.”

At the heart of SA’s energy crisis was government’s failure to plan, maintain and embark on new infrastructure projects, said Dr Sethulego Matebesi, associate professor of sociology at the University of the Free State. –

At heart of crisis is govt’s failure to plan