The collapse and closure of many state-owned entities (SOEs) has caused a major apprenticeship skills and jobs shortage vacuum in South Africa. In the past, the majority of out of school youth could easily find jobs in SOEs.
The sectors varied from energy, water, agriculture, telecoms, aviation, steel, cement, mining, minerals, electronics, textiles, general goods manufacturing, etc.
The National Party government, during apartheid, created policies biased towards the support, development and funding of SOEs as the main drivers of economic development and transformation in the then apartheid South Africa.
And the benefits of those industrial focused policies are still visible today, 30 years after the fall of apartheid.
We can never condone the evil system of apartheid.
But we must also acknowledge its basis of success at an infrastructure development level. The championing of building a vast network of electricity Generation, Transmission and Distribution network system was achieved during those difficult times.
Apartheid-inspired policies provided the basis for today's economic successes and growth.
The new democratic government that took over from the apartheid government post-1994 should have taken lessons from the successes of apartheid and its failures, a concrete plan to build on the infrastructure successes. And SOEs were supposed to be absorbing and employing today all the youths without jobs and skills.
But those SOEs have now collapsed and are nowhere to be found. During apartheid, South Africa experienced the highest levels of economic development, growth and transformation of the economy. Many sectors enjoyed tremendous growth due to the state policies, which favoured SOEs as the drivers of economic growth.
South Africa moved from a rural economy under chieftains and small colonial states to a modern state driven by technology and innovation. The consolidation of electricity generation network system was the bedrock of that transformation. The economy of South Africa was entrusted and led by SOEs, and the private sector played a major support partner to the state in running the economy in return.
Many leading companies during that time were state-owned and led companies. It was the basis for smaller private companies to mushroom and succeed. The state created a pool of resources and capital to fund major large projects. And private companies were given opportunities to bid for projects in SOEs at the time.
Yes, apartheid was an evil system that separated people on the basis of colour and entrenched a despicable hatred policy towards non-whites in South Africa and kept black South Africans (Africans, Coloureds and Indians) under-developed in separate socio-economic development areas called Bantu homelands or black states, later termed Bantustans.
The policy of apartheid was mainly inspired by the German state created under Hitler and his party, the Nazi Party, formerly known as the National Socialist German Workers Party, which today manifests itself in Germany as the Green Party.
This past weekend, as the ANC Youth League struggled to relaunch itself after years of it's demise from daily politics ,the main message of the Youth League's political statement was dominated by the topics of jobs and energy.
Although enthusiastic, the political overview paper was premised on a flawed premise regarding the energy debate that says South Africa must transition from coal-based energy to renewable energy without a single mention of nuclear energy as a potential long-term solution to retiring coal-based energy.
So, from that point onwards, I knew that this newly relaunched version of the Youth League would be ineffective in advancing energy policies going into the future. The hope for a sane energy policy, led by the youth, will emerge elsewhere but not from the current ANC Youth League structure.
The ANC Youth League seems to have lost direction from the onset, and it is heavily influenced and captured by ultra right Neo-liberal green lobby ideology. The League's solution to our energy crisis says that South Africa must move away from coal and push for more deployment of renewable energy at the expense of destroying baseload energy in South Africa.
Anyone who knows about electricity fundamentals will not make such careless statements about energy. As evil and flawed as apartheid was, at the heart of its system successes was the creation of a robust, timeless baseload energy system. Today, economies like the US and China enjoy vast growth rates due to baseload energy derived from electricity generated by coal, nuclear and fossil fuels. It is the basis of today's modern economy.
As electricity generation technologies advances, nuclear will play a significant role going into the future and coal will remain dominant for the foreseeable future. As for South Africa coal was and is still the basis of our economic miracle. South Africa’s industrialization could have not possible without the use of coal as a catalyst to industrialisation.
I hear the arguments from the Youth League and the global pressure that says South Africa must move away from coal towards renewable energy sources. But the challenges and difficulties of such an unplanned transition render that very energy transition plan unfeasible and practically not possible in the foreseeable future.
The technology adoption curve can explain these fundamentals. The Hype Cycle is also a measurement of knowledge and risk when deciding on adopting a technology.
When deciding on adopting an energy source policy, the guiding principle must be guided by what has succeeded and yielded reliability over a long period of time. Yes, technology will forever be evolving, and new disruptors introduced in technology. The litmus test is on the adoption and long-term reliability, and survival of such a technology. The same applies to the energy sector and the energy resources.
Baseload energy basics:
What is baseload energy?
Baseload power is the minimum level of energy required in an electricity grid. This power is generated by multiple sources of power plants that operate continuously to meet the minimum level of power demand on a 24/7 basis.
Baseload plants are usually large-scale power plants which are key components of an efficient electric grid. Baseload plants produce power at a constant rate, continuously throughout the year. The baseload power plants are not designed to respond to peak demands or emergencies, and, as such, there are power plants specifically designed to cater for peak demand power.
The baseload power generation is built to rely on a variety of energy resources, such as coal, nuclear, gas, and fossil fuels, due to the low-cost fuel and steady-state power they can produce.
Other renewable resources that can be added to baseload energy include hydro-power, geothermal heat, biomass, biogas, and also a solar thermal resource with associated energy storage.
Theory on baseload plant capacity rating by Mark Fedkin
Base load plants (as well as other energy-converting facilities) are characterized by a nominal capacity rating. For example, if a plant is rated at 1000 MW, it means it can generate 1000 MWh of electricity per hour when working at full capacity. The actual generation can be less, depending on the demand or operating conditions, and can be characterized by the capacity factor (CF):
CF = [actual generated output] / [maximum possible output]
For example, let us calculate the capacity factor for a 1000 MW base load power plant that generated 512 000 MWh of electricity over the month of June.
In this case, the maximum energy that can be generated by the plant at full capacity over this month can be determined as follows:
E(max) = 1000 MW x 31 days x 24 hour/day = 744 000 MWh
Then,
CF = E(real) / E(max) = 512000 / 744 000 = 0.69 (69%)
There are the number of reasons why a plant can have lower than 100% capacity factor. Some of them are:
- lower demand for electricity over certain periods of time;
- under-capacity operation due to maintenance;
- equipment failures / interruptions;
- resource/fuel shortage;
- equipment upgrade (resulting in high nominal capacity).
Crown Prince Adil Nchabeleng is President of Transform RSA and an Independent Energy Expert.
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* Disclaimer: The columns carried in BR reflect the view of the author, not Independent Media.
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