Progress in financing the decommissioning and repurposing of Eskom’s Komati coal-fired power station is gathering momentum, but at a slower pace than hoped for, prompting the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) to request international partners to ramp up funding for the state-owned enterprise’s (SOE’s) energy transition project.
The PCC’s latest report on Komati, completed after months of stakeholder consultations, notes that though the World Bank approved a $497m funding package for the Eskom just energy transition project at Komati after the station’s final unit was shut down in late 2022, by the end of 2024 only about $2.3m had been disbursed as procurement processes and scope revisions delayed work on the ground.
“To this end we call on all donors, the private sector and primarily government to take up their political, corporate and moral responsibility, and ramp up their investments, grants and social services in ensuring that the needs of those affected by the decommissioning of the power station are addressed,” PCC executive director Dorah Modise said.
The decision to close Komati, which was reaching the end of its 60-year operating life, was taken in 2017. Some of the generating units at the station, which was built with 1,000MW of generation capacity, were already shut down in 2018, and by 2022, when the final unit was turned off, Komati was contributing only 120MW to the grid.
The World Bank, at the request of the government, is the main funder of the Komati shutdown project, which includes funding for renewable energy projects to be developed at the site and $47.5m for socioeconomic development for local communities and workers.
According to the World Bank, without a complete overhaul and huge investments to replace generators and related equipment the Komati power plant cannot be brought back to life.
“To help support raising additional funds to support work at Komati, a financial mobilisation workstream was established in 2024 under the Komati co-ordinating committee convened by the PCC. However, with the launch of the [just energy transition] funding platform, this workstream has now been phased out,” the PCC’s report reads.
Progress on renewable repowering, including the delayed appointment of an owner’s engineer and scaled-back wind ambitions due to permitting constraints, means further capital will be needed to realise the station’s full repurposing.
The PCC hopes new financing instruments to bridge the funding gap will aid in mobilising additional funding. This includes theJET funding platform, established by the just energy transition project management unit. Launched in late 2024 to help connect credible transition projects with grant funding, the platform attracted more than 150 bids in its first call for proposals.
“The fund is expected to be operational by mid-2025. It aims to assist communities in developing funding proposals and may directly support projects as well. This initiative will be accompanied by observatories (just transition centres) that will monitor progress and encourage active community participation in the just transition process,” the report reads.
When the station was shut down it had fewer than 200 permanent employees. Eskom has previously said no permanent jobs were lost when Komati was shut down, though some contractors were affected.
The report notes since the station’s shutdown, 400 people have been trained in renewable energy and other skills, including welders, data engineers and agricultural entrepreneurs.
However, “many of these [renewable energy] jobs are likely to be highly technical and will require specialised skills that may not be readily available within the community”, the report notes.
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