Durban’s R342bn power plan needs more work
OPPOSITION parties have urged the eThekwini Municipality to involve all stakeholders in plans that look to protect the city from the ravaging effects of load shedding.
This after the city recently revealed a R324 billion plan to generate its own power that led to controversy and confusion as the plan included plans to harness nuclear power from independent power producers (IPPs).
According to the National Energy Act, nuclear energy can only be procured by national government and Eskom and not by municipalities.
The city responded to that issue, saying its energy transition policy does not have nuclear power anywhere in its implementation plan and the integrated resource plan, and that it will not be considering nuclear power as an energy source.
Sbu Ntshalintshali, the city’s renewable energy manager, revealed the city’s plans at an SA Institute of Electrical Engineers webinar earlier this month.
He said the energy landscape was changing and the municipality was looking at changing its business model to cater for this and to build capacity.
“We are at a stage where we can convert policy and strategic interventions into attainable changes to the energy sector, create jobs and restore the energy security in the province.
“We need to invest more in the new generation capacity in order to deal with the (energy) deficit we are faced with at this point.”
Ntshalintshali said it was the city’s view that by 2025, they should reduce reliance on Eskom and by then, 20% of the electricity had to come from IPPs.
He said the city was awaiting permission from the National Treasury before they could issue a request for proposals for 400MW of power generation capacity before the end of this year or early 2023. The city’s long-term plans are to secure 2 600MW from a mix of power sources.
However, Ntshalintshali’s reference to sourcing 940MW from nuclear energy by 2035, which is 31% of the energy mix required by the city, created confusion.
IFP eThekwini leader Mdu Nkosi said the city’s plans for IPPs came as a surprise as they had not been tabled at any executive committee meeting, including the human settlements committee.
“We were not aware where this came from because it was not tabled or submitted to any of the eThekwini committees for discussion.”
Caucus leader for the DA in eThekwini, Thabani Mthethwa, said while the party was behind the idea of bringing independent power producers on board, the idea of nuclear power “is not part of the plan”.
“The inclusion of nuclear on the city’s plan is a reflection of the state of the municipality, poor management and poor communication.”
Energy expert Professor Sampson Mamphweli said the National Energy Act prevented municipalities from entering into agreements for nuclear power and only the national government and Eskom could make such arrangements.
“The crucial thing is that there needs to be a public participation process that needs to be embarked on before municipalities can purchase power from anyone.”
Mamphweli said regulations passed by national government allow municipalities to buy electricity from IPPs but a feasibility study needs to be carried out and these agreements must pass muster with the PFMA (Public Finance Management Act) and MFMA (Municipal Finance Management Act) as the municipality must be in good financial standing.
“The feasibility study must be submitted to the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy and only if approved will the National Treasury okay the power purchase agreement which can range from three to 20 years.”