Eskom starts decommissioning old coal plants

Shutdown of Komati in October will be followed by closure of Hendrina, Camden and Grootvlei power stations over the next five years

Next month, the 1,000MW Komati power station near Middelburg in Mpumalanga will become the first of Eskom’s old coal-fired fleet to shut down for decommissioning.

Next in line are the Camden and Grootvlei power stations, with combined capacity of about 4,700MW, to be shut down on a piecemeal basis over the next five years.

Through the decommissioning of end-of-life coal-fired power plants Eskom will retire about 22,000MW of generation capacity (about half of current installed capacity of about 45,000MW) by 2035.

The state-owned power utility is hoping, however, to create new opportunities for workers at these power stations and to replace some of the lost megawatts with renewable power generation projects.

Its “just energy transition” plans will be tested for the first time at Komati, where Eskom has launched several projects to see generation and labour activity continue at the power station after its imminent shutdown date.

This is the second time in Komati’s history that it will be shut down.

After coming online for the first time in 1961, the power station had been completely “mothballed” in the early 1990s because SA had too much generation capacity at the time, Komati general manager Jurie Pieterse said.

However, between 2008 and 2011 the station was brought online again as it became clear that the building of the Medupi and Kusile power stations would take longer than anticipated, steering SA towards a generation capacity deficit.

The decommissioning, “repowering and repurposing” of the Komati plant would be the flagship project in Eskom’s just energy transition programme.

Through this it would aim to provide new opportunities for those workers now employed at coal-fired power stations or at coal mines supplying Eskom, Mandy Rambharos, Eskom general manager for a just energy transition, said at an event held last week to mark the shutdown of Komati.

The plans for Komati, to accommodate some of the about 200 full-time Eskom employees at the plant, include a manufacturing plant for mobile, renewable energy “micro-grids”, the generation of renewable energy and the launch of a training facility where workers will be reskilled

for employment in the renewable energy sector.

Rambharos said SA had a serious skills shortage in meeting the jobs and job requirements that would be created through the renewable energy value chain.

The training centre at Komati, which is being done in collaboration with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s SA Renewable Energy Technology Centre, will offer opportunities for skilled artisans to be trained to work as technicians on the solar and wind installations.

This training centre will later be replicated at other coal power stations that are due for decommissioning.

The facility is being funded by the Global Energy Alliance for People and the Planet (GEAPP).

GEAPP vice-president Joseph Nganga said they viewed SA “as a priority country for showcasing the road map towards a just energy transition”.

The organisation, Nganga said, would provide about $2m (R36m) of grant funding over two years to build the training facility and get it up and running.

Rambharos said they were hoping that the renewable energy industry would consider donating equipment for the training centre that could be used as teaching materials.

Meanwhile, she said, Eskom was in talks with the World Bank for the funding of the decommissioning and repowering of Komati through the construction of renewable energy plants.

Eskom could not at this stage say what the decommissioning and construction of the wind and solar projects would cost, but the first phase would comprise a 150MW solar plant and 70MW wind farm, with more capacity, as well as a battery storage plant to be added during later phases, Rambharos said.