Eskom will soon know the outcome of an appeal lodged about two years ago against a decision related to permitted emissions from its coal-fired power stations.
An expert panel was appointed in 2022 by forestry, fisheries & environment minister Barbara Creecy to advise her on the appeals lodged against a decision by the national air quality officer that would have resulted in the immediate shutdown of about 16GW of Eskom’s coal-fired generation capacity.
It has already delivered its recommendation to the appeal directorate.
According to the department, the National Environmental Consultative and Advisory Forum provided the appeals directorate with its recommendation on the Eskom coal-fired power stations on March 8. “The appeals directorate is reviewing the forum’s report to finalise its recommendation to the minister,” said departmental chief director for communications Peter Mbelengwa.
“The recommendation is anticipated to be presented to the minister by April 16.”
Air quality regulations under the National Environmental Management Act provide that coal power plants must meet the minimum emission standard by a certain time or they would be non-compliant and could not be legally operated. Eskom has previously warned of the risk posed by the possible implementation of minimum standards.
This was after the decision by the department in November 2021 to rein in emissions from Eskom’s coal-fired power stations, which would have required the immediate shutdown of 15.9GW of coal-fired generation capacity and about 30GW by April 2025 when existing postponements would lapse. Several appeals were lodged by NGOs and Eskom against decisions taken by the national air quality officer in relation to the requests for the suspension and/or postponement of compliance with the standards.
Eskom appealed against the department’s refusal to permit it to postpone compliance at Matla, Duvha, Matimba, Medupi and Lethabo power stations.
The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), acting for groundWork and Earthlife Africa, appealed on issues such as the decision to grant suspension of compliance for Camden, Hendrina, Arnot, Komati, Grootvlei and Kriel power stations without detailed and clear decommissioning schedules accompanying the applications.
In a letter to the expert panel at the time, the CER referred to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, which outlined the human and economic cost of Eskom’s noncompliance.
“Under Eskom’s planned retirement schedule and emission control retrofits, emissions from the company’s power plants would be responsible for a projected 79,500 air pollution-related deaths from 2025 until end of life,” said the report.
Compliance would, however, avoid a projected 34,400 deaths from air pollution, it said.
In the letter, the CER acknowledged “alleged possible economic and social consequences” of minimum emission standard compliance, but said the consideration of people’s needs also required that the effects of such decisions on health also be considered.
The draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2023, published by the department of mineral resources & energy, highlights compliance with minimum emission standards as one of the risks to SA’s energy security.
The IRP suggests that the government had to find a balance between “energy security, the adverse health impacts of poor air quality and the economic cost associated with these plants shutting down”.
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