Forward-thinking businesses in SA are now starting to confront life without Eskom by putting plans in place to generate their own energy.
Kelvin has a 600 megawatt capacity, but is currently producing just 200MW, and even that will be shut down within the next two to three years. One of the options being explored is the installation of gas turbines from about 2023 onwards to ramp up output to the original design capacity of 600MW, pending the availability of a reliable gas supply.
“Stable and sufficient electricity supply is a precondition for any growing economy, and there is plenty evidence from around the world that those countries that can guarantee reliable power at a good price are those countries that grow the fastest,” he says. He warns that South Africa’s electricity challenges will remain in the foreseeable future and companies need to be prepared, but urges taking sound independent advice before plunging into self-generation solutions.
Sibanye-Stillwater ran a competitive tender process to appoint a developer to build, own and operate the project, and sell power back to the mining group through a PPA. This approach has a minimal upfront capital requirement for Sibanye-Stillwater and allows capital to be prioritised for core mining projects. The tender was successfully concluded in 2017, suggesting a significant forecasted return to Sibanye-Stillwater over the course of the agreement.
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