Gigaba moots more coal power
Minister cautious on nuclear plans IN SPITE of the recent labour unrest and strike at Medupi, the coal-fired power station being built for Eskom in Limpopo, the government was not ruling out the possibility of building another “Coal 3” station, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba said yesterday.
In an apparent reference to the large carbon footprint of yet another coal-fired power station – in addition to the Kusile plant in Mpumalanga, which is also under construction – the minister told the Cape Town Press Club: “We know the controversies this will elicit.”
But the minister added that “it could very well be that we take decisions to speed up Coal 3” in the interests of reducing the current tightness of electricity supply.
It is not clear where a third plant could be situated, but it is understood that the coal-rich Waterberg area in Limpopo may be a possibility.
The minister, however, was cautious about South Africa going the nuclear route by adding to the nuclear capacity provided by the Koeberg power station in the Western Cape.
There are tentative plans to build three nuclear power stations to feed the electricity grid with 9 600 megawatts of nuclear capacity by 2029 and cut reliance on coal, which provides 90 percent of the country’s electricity.
According to Bloomberg Koeberg, which is almost 30 years old, provides about 5 percent of the power supply.
“I don’t think any policy is cast in stone… if there are huge risks and there are better, easier, cheaper alternatives we certainly would look at them,” Gigaba said. “I am sure the Minister of Energy together with the other ministers in the energy cluster are going to… look at this.”
He backed the National Planning Commission, which is chaired by Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel, for providing “good advice” on the nuclear programme.
“Nobody in our country would want to proceed with nuclear (power) if it would prove unaffordable for the economy.
“The sense is that you are going to need a whole lot more money for the nuclear build programme than you have seen up to now,” he said.
The potential of shale gas in the Karoo might have also altered the picture of the country’s energy future, he argued. The cabinet lifted the moratorium on shale gas exploration in the Karoo two weeks ago.
The commission’s National Development Plan argued that the country should seek to develop shale gas, “provided the overall economic and environmental costs and benefits outweigh those associated with South Africa’s dependence on coal, or with the alternative of nuclear power”.
Bloomberg said that Areva, EDF, Toshiba’s Westinghouse Electric, China Guangdong Nuclear Power, Rosatom and Korea Electric Power were interested in building nuclear power plants in South Africa.
Gigaba meanwhile urged the resolution of the outstanding problem of the high costs of “embedded derivatives” in a special pricing agreement between Eskom and BHP Billiton, which runs two aluminium smelters in KwaZulu-Natal.
The agreement, which ends in 2020, allows the company subsidised electricity when the aluminium price is low. The deal costs Eskom about R5.5 billion a year.
Gigaba said he was taking advice “on how to intervene to help to resolve that impasse… we have got to”.