Senior Eskom representatives say the utility should have begun implementing initiatives to create jobs at the recently decommissioned Komati power station in Mpumalanga sooner.
This would have avoided the lag time between when the station was shut down in 2022 and the launch of new programmes aimed at renewable power generation, job creation and skills training.
Communities in the heartland of Mpumalanga’s coal industry near Komati have expressed concern over delays with Eskom’s just energy transition plans to bring new opportunities and “green jobs” to this part of the country, which is the first to be affected by SA’s gradual move from a coal-dominated to a renewables-dominated power mix.
Komati power station was the first of Eskom’s coal-fired fleet to shut down and is seen as the prototype for testing its just energy transition plans.
Speaking at a community engagement session at Komati on Friday, a representative for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said that so far the community has heard a lot about the future plans for Komati but there has been little evidence of these plans being implemented.
“We were made to believe a ‘just’ transition would mean that when you take away something immediately there would be a replacement of that. What we are seeing are future plans and nothing is happening on the ground yet,” the NUM representative said.
“We hear there will be localisation and manufacturing of certain components, but that won’t happen in the next 10 years. Are there any plans in that regard yet or is this just lip service to the people of Mpumalanga?”
Komati’s acting power station manager, Jurie Pieterse, said that in 2018 there were 338 Eskom employees at Komati, 228 employees at the time of shutdown, and now 150 after others were deployed elsewhere in Eskom.
Decommissioning
Eskom’s head of generation, Bheki Nxumalo, admitted the utility “shouldn’t have got to this point where there is no megawatts at Komati”.
He was referring to plans to build 370MW of renewable power capacity at Komati.
“We have learnt now that we need to start early while the plants are still running — at those plants that will enter decommissioning next,” Nxumalo said.
He was one of several senior Eskom representatives who spoke at the engagement session between workers from communities around Komati and the presidential climate commission.
Eskom chair Mpho Makwana, who also attended the session, said: “Lessons learnt here will guide decommissioning processes at other power stations to ensure we preserve jobs and create new green jobs in the process.”
‘Second life’
At the same event, Vikesh Rajpaul, GM of Eskom’s just energy transition office, acknowledged the utility needs to provide “a second life” to power stations that are decommissioned as they reach their end of life, adding that Eskom was “late” in launching new initiatives at Komati.
“There are a lot of things that we could and should have done differently,” he said.
Rajpaul outlined plans for Komati, which include a 150MW solar plant, 150MW of battery storage and 70MW of wind turbines to be established on the site. The first phase of construction for these plants is set to begin towards the end of 2025 or early 2026.
Other job-creating initiatives are an agrivoltaics project (solar PV panels positioned above agricultural fields), a training facility and a containerised microgrid assembly plant. These are to be running by between August 2023 and mid-2024.
The projects are funded through a $497m (about R9.5bn) blended concessional loan from the World Bank and partners.
By 2030 the repowering and repurposing projects are expected to create 660 direct, full-time jobs as well as 8,700 temporary jobs, Rajpaul said.
Next in line for decommissioning are the Hendrina, Camden and Grootvlei power stations, which are to be shut down on a piecemeal basis over the next four years. Through the decommissioning of end-of-life coal-fired power plants Eskom will retire about 22,000MW of generation capacity (about half of current installed capacity of about 43,000MW) by 2035.
However, the shutdown of some plants may be delayed after an announcement by electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa earlier this year that the government would reassess the viability of letting some plants run beyond their planned end of life to help alleviate the electricity supply shortage.
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