The South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi) has called for the government to exploit all baseload energy sources, including “cleaner” fossil fuels and extend the life of coal-fired power stations, in a bid to deal with the ongoing electricity crisis.
Sanedi CEO Dr Titus Mathe yesterday said that all stakeholders must do everything in their power to support the Eskom technical recovery and the introduction of new electricity capacity.
Mathe said they must also drive very aggressively the implementation of energy efficiency, demand-side management interventions, and a few behavioural changes to conserve electricity.
Mathe said these were merely short-term measures to mitigate that the energy crisis.
“However, in the medium term we must fast-track the introduction of enabling solutions to move towards a low carbon economy. In this case, cleaner fossil fuels - coal, gas, liquid fuels - must play a key part in the energy transition in the short-term to medium-term,” Mathe said.
“Extending the life and modernisation of the existing energy assets and infrastructure should also precede us to consider in the medium- to short-term.
“This must include grid expansion and modernisation in the medium to short-term, so we can adequately deal with the crisis that we're facing. In the long term, we need to be producing solutions that significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than mitigate climate change.”
Mathe was speaking at the opening of the second day Sanedi’s inaugural energy conference which sought to speak about the possible solutions for the pursuit of energy security.
He said the conference was taking place at a very difficult and critical moment for the country as it was confronted by the serious energy crisis, which has devastated the economy.
The government yesterday signed loan agreements which provided below market rates with the World Bank, Government of Germany, and the African Development Bank (AfDB) for concessional financing to support the country’s Just Energy Transition in line with the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan.
The World Bank will provide a $1 billion (R18bm) loan for a duration of 15 years, the German government, €500 million (R10bn) for 12 years and the AfDB $300 000 for 12 years.
Mathe said Sanedi was in full support of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), but this needed to be rolled out in a scale and pace that would not compromise energy security.
However, he said the decommissioning of the Komati Power Station in Mpumalanga to be transitioned to lower carbon technologies and converted into a renewable generation site should be done in a sustainable manner.
“We welcome the loans. We need the loans. But as a country we should not be dictated to as to how we use those loans because we are a sovereign country. We can use these loans to roll out renewable energy. We can use these loans to clean coal technologies, to upgrade and modernise the grid and so forth,” he said.
“People have spoken a lot about what is happening in Komati. We must not repeat another Komati going forward. We should consider all technologies to repurpose and repower old power stations.”
Also speaking at the conference, deputy minister of mineral resources and energy Dr Nobuhle Nkabane said the department intended to present the reviewed Integrated Resource Plan 2019 in the next Cabinet meeting, and was hoping that it would be released for public comments soon thereafter.
Nkabane came out in support of “cleaner” fossil fuels, saying environmental preservation and climate change were increasingly being used by some amongst society to block development in the country.
“We appreciate that any transition to a low carbon future will have an impact on the use of fossil fuels. However, in view of the fact that 82% of energy sources in the world are from fossil fuels, this conference must help us determine how best South Africa can manage its transition, given its endowment with these fossil fuels,” Nkabane said.
“We look up to you and your research capabilities to guide us on what we will do with resources such as coal, oil, and gas in the transition.
“Our considered view is that, as we transition from high carbon emissions to low carbon emissions, we do not need to abandon these resources in the hope that something new will be greater. We must first test the reliability, efficiency, and resilience of the new technologies before we can unbundle or phase down on the old technologies.”
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